Ed Boyden, a researcher at MIT, is at the forefront of a new science that aims to map and even heal the brain with light. It’s called optogenetics, and the journal Science has called it one of the great insights of the 21st century. It’s in its early days, but the goal is to one day be able to take a disease like depression, PTSD, or epilepsy and, using bursts of light, just turn it off -- the same way you’d fix a software glitch in a computer.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Musician Joe Jackson talks with Jim Fleming about his concept album “Heaven and Hell” which is based on the Seven Deadly Sins.
Jonathan Lethem's new novel is "Chronic City." The book has been described as a cross between the famous borough-centric New Yorker cartoon and the darkest episode of "Seinfeld."
John Portmann contributed to and edited the collection of essays, “In Defense of Sin.” He tells Steve Paulson why, as a child, he loved going to confession.
Mary Sweeney was producer, editor and co-writer of “The Straight Story.” The film concerned an elderly man’s cross country journey on a riding mower and was directed by David Lynch.
Katharine Rogers tells Jim Fleming that there’s a lot more to Oz than the Wizard, and that Baum always loved the theater and would have been thrilled by the Judy Garland movie.
Slime molds that solve mazes and parasitic dodder plants that seek out their prey are remarkable examples of nature's intelligence. Anthropologist Jeremy Narby offers lessons on how to see the entire world as our kin.
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