pharmacologist, and freelance science and medicine writer
Pharmacologist; freelance science and medicine writer, and contributor to Forbes; Director of Science Communications at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and board member of the Henrietta Lacks Foundation
Mental Illness and the Myths about Violence Last week, a second black box was found at the site where a Germanwings AirBus A320 crashed in the French Alps, killing 150 people, including the co-pilot Andreas Lubitz. That and a search of Lubitz's apartment have provided more evidence that he deliberately caused the crash . Since then, news reports have focused on his history of severe depression. But experts on mental illness say it's dangerously misleading to suggest that depression alone was the cause of mass murder. They warn of unnecessary fear -- and a stigma that discourages people from reporting treatable symptoms. Feelings of aggression and hostility do complicate the equation, raising conflicts between privacy and public safety.
Genetic Breakthroughs: Patents and Profits Mapping the human genome began "the biological gold rush of the 21st Century," with companies now owning patents on 4000 human genes. Today, the US Supreme Court is being asked to strike down two patents on BRCA 1 and BRCA 2, genes that helped doctors discover both breast and ovarian cancer. Nobody can do that without paying Myriad Genetics , which isolated the genes. But opponents argue the genes are "products of Nature." We hear about a case with long-term implications for the future of "personalized medicine" designed to serve the needs of each individual patient.
Trump plays scolder-in-chief with NATO allies At the opening of NATO’s dramatic new headquarters in Brussels today, President Trump acknowledged that Article 5 — promising that “an attack on one nation is an attack on all” -- has only been invoked one time: in the aftermath of September 11. But the President failed to provide what 27 other Alliance members have been waiting for: a re-commitment by America’s new leader to Article 5. Instead, they got a scolding.
What happens when America retreats from the world? Is President Trump taking his "America First" agenda to extremes, withdrawing the country from the international stage on trade and climate change, distancing America from its traditional allies across the Atlantic and even threatening to physically isolate the country through the building of a wall along its southern border? León Krauze guest hosts.
Is the threat from Russia missing from the Russia meddling probe? There's much being made about the Trump administration's possible ties with Russia. But the bottom line is Russia's effort to influence American democracy. Do the President and his aides care enough to take action before voters go back to the polls?
Janesville and the American Dream Janesville, Wisconsin is the hometown of Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan. But he couldn’t prevent the closing of the General Motors factory after 100 years. On this Memorial Day rebroadcast of To the Point, we hear what’s happened to what once was a model of American middle-class unity.