According to popular media, there seems to be a new cure/treatment/fad for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) every few months.  But sadly, the number of patients keeps rising, as does the fear and desperation of family, friends, and those at risk.

Functional images of calcium release within a neuron from a normal brain (left), and from an AD brain (right).   More calcium is indicated by redder colors.

Continue reading “Why in the World Haven’t We Cured Alzheimer’s by Now?”

To prevent an increase in global average temperatures that would pose unacceptable risks to life on Earth, we must rapidly and significantly reduce emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Continue reading “Climate Change and Energy Needs: Finding a Path to Sustainability”

The human race, like all macrobiological life, evolved in a sea of microbes. There was no way to keep the bacterial and archaeal hoards at bay, so instead life evolved mechanisms to live with these invaders. The immune system was refined over millions of years to control our interaction with the microbial world, and even to use it as a mechanism of defense, food processing, and vitamin production. The immune system and the microbiome have shaped each other in extraordinarily elaborate and intricate ways.

Continue reading “How the Indoor Microbiome Influence Health”

The brain is what allows us to function, yet we understand little about how it works.

Using electrodes implanted inside people’s brains during surgery we can learn how thinking, deciding, feeling and dreaming works. In this talk, you will learn about the current neuroscience research about the way our neurons code our behavior, and how understanding this can help us grasp the nature of free will and our identity kernels.

Continue reading “Hacking the Brain to Find Ourselves”