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People are in constant conversation with their dogs, says dog scientist Alexandra Horowitz, and dogs pick up on things like our tone of voice. "We think meaning is all in the words but for them, the meaning is in the context, and they’re working very hard to understand it.” Horowitz studies dog cognition and the relationship between dogs and their human owners. She runs th...
What does it mean to be creative? How can we all tap into creative potential?
With advances in testing and technology, the world of professional sports is beginning to use data to evaluate athlete health and to predict — and ideally, prevent — injury. Experts equipped with 3D motion capture technology are now essential members of team training staffs. Are these new technologies and recovery interventions increasing player longevity? Will cost-effect...
When voices rise together in song, dancers tango across the floor, or a painter takes to a canvas, they may be engaging in a hobby, a passion, or a career. Most likely, they aren’t thinking about their brain circuitry or the cascading biochemical responses being sparked by their artistic pursuits. But we now have imaging technology and wearable sensors that can capture tha...
Although essential to ensure the safety and effectiveness of new drugs and devices, clinical trials tend to be costly and slow to reach conclusions, and there is often an imbalance in the race, gender, and age of participants. Efforts to reinvigorate the research ecosystem aim to broaden access to trials, increase their diversity, and make it more efficient to capture pro...
Music exists in every human culture and drives a multibillion-dollar industry, and yet the vast majority of people who enjoy music do instinctively, without any formal training. So where does music come from, and what is is good for? Drawing from studies in neuroscience, psychology, clinical science, and data science, Dr. Psyche Loui will discuss why we feel emotions in re...
We often take biology for granted, rarely recognizing the incredible technological feats of an organism as it grows, heals, and self-assembles—sustainably. As our ability to read, write, and design DNA grows, this power of biology is enabling amazing new biotechnologies to impact numerous industries, from everyday products brewed by designed microbes to programmable materi...
More than 140,000 people from more than 140 countries have told researchers just what they think and feel about science and key health challenges, such as vaccinations. Wellcome is releasing the findings for the first time at Aspen Ideas: Health. The largest such survey to date cuts across language, culture, and literacy levels to reveal how much people trust science, whet...
Once the domain of bohemian culture, psychedelics are now headed into mainstream medicine. As psychedelic therapy becomes easier to study, mounting evidence is informing new clinical models to treat depression, PTSD, and addiction, smooth the end-of-life passage, and make grief easier to handle. Oregon voters have approved the legalization of psilocybin, a “magic mushroom,...
In 2021—five decades after President Richard Nixon declared a War on Cancer—some 1.9 million new cancer cases were diagnosed and the scourge killed more than 600,000 Americans. Yet we have made extraordinary progress on the battlefront in the same time frame. Childhood leukemia can often be cured, death rates for colorectal, cervical, and prostate cancer have fallen by hal...
Medical and technological breakthroughs, cultural and demographic upheaval, policy changes, and financial realities virtually guarantee that the health care system of tomorrow will look nothing as it does today. In addition, business models favoring hospital consolidation, payer-provider integration, and new reimbursement mechanisms are driving new ways of delivering patie...
Legendary, award-winning artist David Byrne joins in conversation with astrophysicist Janna Levin, director of sciences at Pioneer Works in Brooklyn. Byrne co-created an immersive science theater project opening in Denver in September. Theater of the Mind uses narrative to explore perception, memory, attention, and our sense of self, and incorporates the work of neuroscien...
New research designs that use biomarkers, genetic testing, digital health devices, and artificial intelligence can modernize clinical trials so cutting-edge therapy can reach those who need it much more quickly. Rigor, speed, safety, and public trust are equal imperatives in the drive to overhaul the current system, which has been plagued by inefficiency, lack of participa...
Despite all of the scientific advances in genomic sequencing, genetic testing, and gene editing, science writer Carl Zimmer suggests we lack a rich understanding of what heredity means and how traits travel from one generation to the next. Cultural and environmental conditions have complex and nuanced influences on human biology, personal and family characteristics are not...
For many women reaching middle age, menopause is a liberating signal that the childbearing years have come to an end. But with its characteristic hot flashes and complex effects on memory, sleep, sexual functioning, bones, and mental health, this inevitable part of aging is also marked by physical and emotional challenges. Misinformation, research gaps, cultural myths, and...
What would happen if genetic sequencing were standard care for undiagnosed diseases? And how can we ensure that the future of genomics benefits everyone, not just the one percent?
Rick Doblin wants to be a legally licensed psychedelic therapist. Learn about his work using MDMA, or ecstasy, to help people suffering from PTSD.
Psychologist Dan Gilbert reveals what scientists know about the human ability to imagine the future.
Faced with the COVID-19 pandemic, the healthcare industry had to quickly adapt to confront the rapidly evolving challenges facing its patients, customers, and employees. Learn how three key decisions enabled Merck & Co. to accelerate innovation in 2020 and why these lessons will be critical to future success in addressing the most pressing healthcare challenges.