Features

Historical Medical Films at the National Library of Medicine

How a Unique Collection Started and Grew

BY MOHOR SENGUPTA, NEI

One of the world’s largest collections of medical films and videos is at the National Library of Medicine (NLM), which has been collecting and preserving them—and making them available to researchers—since the 1950s.

Is Music Really the Medicine of the Soul?

An Interview with Renée Fleming and Francis Collins

BY JOANNA CROSS, NIMH

What happens when you get a world-renowned scientist and a famous opera singer in the same room? A spontaneous rendition of “The Times They Are a-Changin’” and the establishment of an important collaboration.

Our Brains Appear Uniquely Tuned for Musical Pitch

Speech and Music May Have Shaped Human Brain Circuits for Hearing

BY CHRISTOPHER THOMAS, NINDS

In the eternal search for understanding what makes us human, scientists found that our brains are more sensitive to pitch, the “higher” and “lower” (or “deeper”) sounds caused by differences in wavelength, than our evolutionary relative the macaque monkey.

National Academy of Sciences

Mini Symposium: Celebrating NIH’s Newest Members

The mini symposium honored the work of NIH’s newest NAS members: two elected in 2018, Clare Waterman (NHLBI) and Michael Gottesman (NCI-CCR), and two elected in 2019, Elaine Ostrander (NHGRI) and Michael Lenardo (NIAID).

Powerful, Condensed Matter

The One-Day 2019 Research Festival

BY THE NIH RESEARCH FESTIVAL ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

The 2019 NIH Research Festival will be as packed and energetic as a neutron star. We have condensed the Research Festival into one action-packed day on Wednesday, September 11.

Nobel Laureate Eric Betzig Shares “The Secret Lives of Cells”

Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series Presentation in April 2019

BY HUSSAIN ATHER

To create dynamic, precise images of cells, scientists have had to refine their microscopy methods to study them. Physicist Eric Betzig, a co-recipient of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry “for the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy,” delivered the lecture “The Secret Lives of Cells” on April 24, 2019.

Fostering Stem Cell Research at NIH

2019 NIH Stem Cell Symposium

BY MANJU BHASKAR, NINDS

Stem-cell research being performed by NIH intramural and extramural scientists was highlighted at the 2019 NIH Stem Cell Symposium, held on May 13, 2019, in Lipsett Amphitheater (Building 10).

Richard Chadwick, NIDCD Scientist Emeritus and a New NIH Catalyst Editor

One of the First NIH Researchers to Study Bioengineering

Richard Chadwick pioneered bioengineering technologies that have allowed researchers to study delicate tissues—such as those in the inner ear—without touching or damaging them. Chadwick, who was chief of the Section on Auditory Mechanics in NIDCD, retired in April 2019 after having spent 39 years at NIH. He continues to serve NIH as a scientist emeritus and is also the new scientist-emeritus editor for the NIH Catalyst.

Valerie Schneider: Diving Deep into Information Engineering

Highlighting the Work of Our Unique NIH Staff Scientists

BY KATHRYN MCKAY, NLM

Valerie Schneider dives deep—whether it’s into the ocean or her work. Ironically, if it weren’t for a fish, this developmental biologist and deep-sea diver might not have rediscovered her love of genetics and landed a career as a staff scientist at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) at the National Library of Medicine.

NIH Science in Orbit

Tissue Chips in Space

BY ANNE WRIGHT, NCATS

Both intramural and extramural NIH scientists are using the special environment of space to gather new insights into human health. Symptoms of accelerated aging and many health conditions, such as immune-system changes and bone and muscle loss, occur more rapidly in space due to the effects of microgravity.