Author: jlolds

Native Angeleno, professor of Neuroscience and Public Policy at George Mason University

Financial Times on doctors with MBA’s

This is an issue that I talk about quite a bit with colleagues: the notion that as we train a new generation of physicians, they will need a constellation of skills above and beyond their classical medical training. One such area has to do with business know how. Today’s Financial Times (click on the link above) has an excellent article about this new niche in business education.

Money quote:

In the fast-changing world of modern healthcare, the job of a doctor is more and more like the job of chief executive. The people who run hospitals and physicians’ practices don’t just need to know medicine. They must also be able to balance budgets, motivate a large and diverse staff and make difficult marketing and legal decisions.

What will Krasnow look like in 2056?: I

Over the next several blogposts I’ll imagine a thriving institute for
advanced study in the year 2056, a half-century from now. I’ll be long
gone of course, but my hope is that the Institute will be a world-center
for research, even more-so than it is today–perhaps with science
spanning the fields of astrobiology, anthropology, brain sciences and
new fields that we don’t even have names for today.

Will we be bigger? I imagine yes, but not by that much. Too many PI’s
and management starts to become unwieldy. But our tendrils will be
everywhere: summer school courses at exotic locations, Krasnow PI
authored books translated into many languages and perhaps intelligent
machines (robots) designed at Krasnow exploring the nether reaches of
the solar system.

This will be an optimistic look ahead: one that assumes we’ve got the
world’s current existential problems well in hand. There will be
problems of course–and Institute scientists will be at the forefront of
solving practical problems, but no apocalypse….call me naive.

So let’s look ahead….

Jim

New Einstein letters

I’ve always been quite interested in Einstein’s biography. Some new primary material is now available (click on the link): letters from 1915 when he was working on the general theory of relativity.

Jim

Lawrence Summers on the Biosciences Century

Former Harvard President Lawrence Summers has a very interesting Op-Ed in today’s Financial Times. It’s a link that’s open to subscribers only, but here’s the money quote:

If the 20th century was defined by developments in the physical sciences, the 21st century will be defined by developments in the life sciences….Life science approaches will lead to everything from further agricultural revolutions to profound changes in energy technology and the development of new materials. The “drugs that help you study” that are now pervasive on college campuses are just a precursor of developments that will make it possible to alter human capacities and human natures in profound ways.

Summers may have lost his job at Harvard, but he sure hasn’t lost his intellectual edge. I think he’s spot on here.

Jim

So it’s in the insula!

In this week’s SCIENCE–researchers at Iowa and USC find that individuals with focal stroke injuries to the insula suddenly lose all interest in their smoking addictions. I haven’t seen the actual article yet, just the news reports (I link to the NY Times article), but I’m always cautious about such discoveries which purport to link a part of the brain to some salient aspect of human mental experience (e.g. the pleasure center). Nora Volkow, director of NIDA at NIH calls the discovery “mind-boggling”.

Jim

Walking through the new building

I had the pleasure of walking through the new Krasnow expansion today on a tour with one of our faculty-position finalists. It was incredible to see all the wonderful new space for research!

And our finalists themselves so far are so very impressive! Three new PI’s will join Krasnow in the Fall!

Jim

The Spring Semester Begins

This afternoon, snow is finally falling here in Washington. Tomorrow the Spring semester officially begins at George Mason University where I work. It’ll be nice to see the students back, although I must say the traffic situation around campus this past month has been delightful. As the new term begins, I am reminded of how as an undergrad at Amherst College, I loved flying from Los Angeles, back across the United States into the snowy winter of western Massachusetts because of the promise of a new beginning and the excitement of learning new things.

Here at Krasnow, we’re looking forward to the new term and the promise of learning new things also.

Jim

Turmeric (the spice) and Alzheimer’s

I have long been interested in the science of biologicals (organic chemicals that occur naturally in biological systems) as therapeutic agents. Over the years there have been many such stories–probably the strongest evidence is found in the fish oil story within the context of cardiovascular disease. But here (click on the link above) is a new/old wrinkle: turmeric (think mustard and Indian food) as a preventative for Alzheimer’s Disease.

Jim