Topic: Health and Medicine

Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with UCLA's Dr. Marco Iacoboni about mirror neurons: the cells in our brains which enable us to comprehend how others are feeling.

Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with Dr. Colin Garner, CEO at Xceleron, about new technologies which would reduce the need for animal testing.

On this episode of IEEE Spectrum, learn about controlling a computer mouse by voice, a better alternative to electroshock therapy, and citizen clean water activism. A new software program designed to compliment voice recognition software lets users control a mouse by making vowel sounds and clicks. Also, magnetic seizure therapy has been as effective as electroshock therapy in patients who don't respond to medication, but without the threat of amnesia.

Physician and medical informatician John Faughnan is an eclectic and engaging thinker and writer. On this edition of Interviews with Innovators, he converses with host Jon Udell about the progress of knowledge representation and information exchange in the field of health care, and about personal strategies for memory management and effective communication.

Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with Dr. Lee Goldstein, from Neuroptix Corporation, about a problem five million Americans cope with, and for which there is no definitive diagnostic test - until possibly now. Goldstein explains what we know today about Alzheimer's, and that which we didn't five years ago.

Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with author Carl Zimmer about Ecoli: the good, the bad, and the under appreciated.

On BioTech Nation, Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with BIO's Jim Greenwood, and Josh Boger from Vertex Pharmaceuticals during the anual International BIO Conference 2008.

Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with Paul Tan, CEO of Living Cell Technologies, who have a new innovative approach to diabetes.

When Dr. Vera Cordeiro Rio worked at Hospital da Lagoa in Rio de Janeiro, she witnessed a constant admission/re-admission cycle in childcare treatment. To break that cycle, she gathered medical community volunteers to form Renascer, addressing root causes that prevent families from providing adequate care. Join host Sheela Sethuraman as she interviews Dr. Cordeiro Rio, and learn how Cordeiro Rio's passion translated into a methodology that is quickly sweeping through Brazil and the world.

The question of what to eat to be healthy has spawned a rash of often contradictory advice by "experts." In this talk, sponsored by the Stanford Ethics and Society Program, NYU professor and author Marion Nestle offers simple advice that cuts through the confusion. She highlights the difference between "nutrients" and "food," and suggests how to bring "nutrition" back into the food realm. Her discussion forays into how agriculture and business interact to produce the foodstuffs on our shelves.