October 4, 2023

Idiopathic Hypersomnia: The History and Future of Narcolepsy’s Shadowy Sibling

Quinn Eastman

What makes a disease or disorder “real”? More precisely, what attributes allow medical professionals to take a condition — and the people living with it — seriously? My book, The Woman Who Couldn’t Wake Up, explores the history of idiopathic...

May 12, 2023

Q&A: Don Grant on Nursing the Spirit

Illness and death have always raised profound spiritual concerns. However, today most people experience suffering and treatment in hospitals and other impersonal, bureaucratic facilities whose employees are expected to follow scientific, rationalized norms of behavior. How do professional caregivers—the nurses...

December 9, 2020

New From the Association for Asian Studies The Pandemic

Our weekly list of new books is now available! Association for Asian Studies The Pandemic Perspectives on Asia Edited by Vinayak Chaturvedi This collection of essays provides analyses of the COVID-19 pandemic in Asia. It covers the first phase of...

November 12, 2020

6 Things to Consider Before Applying to PhD Programs

“A wealth of practical wisdom and cordial wit fills this book. Every lab will want to have a bin-full ready for all, from undergraduates, to graduate students, postdocs, techs, and, yes, faculty. Juavinett has a faultless and streamlined take on...

September 17, 2020

Book Review: Basic Literacy in Toxicology

Lawrence P. Riff

Review of The Alchemy of Disease: How Chemicals and Toxins: Cause Cancer and Other Illness, by John Whysner, as published in the Los Angeles Daily Journal. • • • • • • In the age of Covid-19, we are all...

June 25, 2020

The Other Pandemics: Air Pollution and Climate Change

By John Whysner

“The field of toxicology has become increasingly sophisticated as our knowledge of biology continues to evolve. As a scientist, it is enjoyable to read how John Whysner presents the information, and I have no doubt that the general public and...

December 12, 2018

Book Excerpt! The Stigma Effect (preface)

“The strength of this book is the way it balances the interconnected components of self-stigma and public stigma, with equally strong treatment of both. It will be of interest to people interested or involved in stigma reduction, either as advocates,...

December 11, 2018

Q&A: Patrick Corrigan on The Stigma Effect

“How do we, as a society, reduce stigmatization of the seriously mentally ill? As Patrick Corrigan persuasively argues in this thorough inquiry into the subject, we should listen to their stories, for then we will discover fellow human beings, and...

July 2, 2015

Sheldon Krimsky on What's at Stake in Our Use of Stem Cells

Read an excerpt from the epilogue to “Stem Cell Dialogues”

July 1, 2015

The President's Stem Cells — A Dialogue from the "Stem Cell Dialogues"

“You put your finger on one of the peculiarities of the bifurcated sys­tem of ethics in our country—one set of principles for public funding and another for private funding. Embryo ethics straddles two moral universes, and scientists have had to...

June 30, 2015

Sheldon Krimsky on the Use of Dialogue in "Stem Cell Dialogues"

The following post is by Sheldon Krimsky, author of Stem Cell Dialogues: A Philosophical and Scientific Inquiry Into Medical Frontiers In 1998 cell biology and medical research had entered a new stage of development. James Thomson of the University of...

May 22, 2015

The Journey Ahead

Read “The Journey Ahead,” an excerpt from Markus Heilig’s THE THIRTEENTH STEP: ADDICTION IN THE AGE OF BRAIN SCIENCE.