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.
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Julia Alvarez talks about her novel for young adults, and how it mirrors her own experience reconciling a native Dominican background with the culture of her adopted home: a small town in rural Vermont.
Nicholson Baker's latest novel is called "The Anthologist." Baker tells Anne Strainchamps the book's about a writer who longs to be a poet.
For years, Paul Ewald's been trying to convince people that cancer is caused by germs, not genes.
Journalist Kevin Krajick's book tells the story of geologists Chuck Fipke and Stew Blusson, a couple of small-time prospectors who went looking for diamonds in the Canadian tundra.
Singer and pianist Marcia Ball talks about the various kinds of Blues and how they differ from what she usually plays.
Travel writer Tony Perrotet has spent his career traveling all over the globe, but he skipped the Mediterranean tour, choosing Tierra del Fuego or the Amazon over Rome. But the discovery of an ancient guide book launched him on his most exotic journey yet, in the footsteps of the Ancients.
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.
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