Aug 7, 2019 | Science & Technology
By Jeremy Delahanty Imagine you have been asked to define pain by your doctor. They might have asked for a rating on a scale from zero, no pain, to ten, unbearable pain. Or you chose from a selection of faces ranging from happy to tearful. Maybe you answer with your...
May 7, 2019 | Science & Technology
By Norman A. Paradis Norman A. Paradis investigate why it is so hard to find a cure for Alzheimer’s after a century of research into the brain disease. Biogen recently announced that it was abandoning its late stage drug for Alzheimer’s, aducanumab, causing...
Dec 11, 2018 | Politics & Society, Science & Technology
Scientists are finding more and more evidence that human behaviour is not rational, not conscious, and maybe completely programmed without our rational thinking. How does the unconscious mind and biological predispositions affect political outcomes and prejudice...
Oct 23, 2018 | Science & Technology
By Lily Toomey Reading minds seems to be a common part of the science-fiction canon—a genre much loved by actual scientists. But even as someone who turned their love of Kurt Vonnegut, John Wyndham and H.G. Wells into a career as a neuroscientist, I hadn’t considered...
Sep 6, 2018 | Science & Technology
By Lucy V Justice, Martin Conway & Shazia Akhtar I can remember being a baby. I recall being in a vast room inside a doctor’s surgery. I was passed to a nurse and then placed in cold metal scales to be weighed. I was always aware that this memory was unusual...
Aug 6, 2018 | Science & Technology
By Yewande Pearse Hallucinations may be a symptom of mental illness, but they are not necessarily harmful as Yewande Pearse explains. As late as the 18th century, hallucinations in their various forms were considered independent diseases or syndromes. In 1821, Alexis...
Jul 30, 2018 | Science & Technology
By Hannah Thomasy Doctoral candidate Hannah Thomasy discusses the impacts of all-nighters on the brain. Is staying up late a health-risk? For decades, scientists have suspected that there is a connection between poor sleep and neurodegenerative diseases like...
Sep 21, 2017 | Science & Technology
Neuroscience has uncovered so many clues about human attitudes and behaviours that have far-reaching consequences. But scholars and doctors disagree about what it does and does not tell us about what it means to be human. Are we our brains? Do we have free will? How...