By 2021, nearly 2,000 volunteers had answered the call to test an experimental Alzheimer’s drug known as BAN2401. For the drugmaker Eisai, the trial was a shot at a windfall — potentially billions of dollars — for defanging a disease that had confounded researchers for more than a century. To …
Read More »Opinion | Why We May Soon Use Ozempic to Treat Addiction
In late 2016, Steven Klein realized that he’d lost control over his drinking and stimulant use. He became sober that December, with help from 12-step meetings. But he also struggled with overeating, which he views as another addiction. Stress from the pandemic caused him to gain more than 40 pounds …
Read More »Frances Conley, Neurosurgeon Who Protested Sexism, Dies at 83
Dr. Frances Conley made national headlines in 1991 when she resigned from her position at Stanford University School of Medicine, saying that sexism had made her job untenable. At the time, she was a tenured professor and one of the country’s only female neurosurgeons. For decades she had played along …
Read More »Why Can’t I Get This Song Out of My Head?
Q: I have had a Kacey Musgraves song stuck in my head for two weeks and it’s making me crazy. Why is this happening? First, some reassurance: You’re not alone. Research suggests that catchy songs that get lodged in your head — colloquially known as earworms — are common, and …
Read More »Our Bigger Brains Came With a Downside: Faster Aging
The human brain, more than any other attribute, sets our species apart. Over the past seven million years or so, it has grown in size and complexity, enabling us to use language, make plans for the future and coordinate with one another at a scale never seen before in the …
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