Jon Hamilton

Scientists have identified specialized brain cells that create two distinct kinds of thirst. Some cells respond to a need for water alone, while others produce a craving for water and salt.

People of African ancestry have been excluded from many studies of brain disorders. In Baltimore, scientists, doctors and community leaders are working to make neuroscience research more diverse.

Researchers were able to mimic the mind-altering effects of the drug ketamine by inducing a particular rhythm in one area of the brain.

An experiment involving some "mighty mice" on the International Space Station could someday help astronauts maintain muscle and bone strength on interplanetary journeys.

An experimental drug let mice spend a month in the International Space Station's near-zero gravity without losing mass. It could help people spend years in space without major health consequences.

Scientists say new drugs are on the way for patients with ALS. The latest is a two-drug combo that appears to slow the progression of the fatal nerve disease with a modest but meaningful benefit.

With less structure and supervision than is typically provided inside a classroom, remote classes lean hard on already stressed parents to help students with ADHD stay focused and engaged.

Distance learning is a big challenge for many students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and other learning disabilities. And making it work often requires parents to become educators.

Doctors have a new option for suicidal patients. It's a fast-acting nasal spray containing a version of the anesthetic ketamine.

The Food and Drug Administration has approved a fast-acting nasal spray to treat suicidal patients. The spray contains a chemical cousin of the anesthetic and party drug ketamine.

Gene therapy has helped a 9-year-old boy regain enough muscle strength to run. If successful in others, the treatment could change the lives of thousands of children with Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Two new human studies back earlier hints that vaccines designed to prevent respiratory infections might also provide some protection against Alzheimer's disease.

Researchers believe gene therapy is poised to change the lives of thousands with the fatal genetic disorder Duchenne muscular dystrophy — thanks to over 40 years of scientist Jude Samulski's work.

Structures inside healthy brain cells nimbly move from one state to the next to perform different functions. But in certain degenerative brain diseases, scientists now think, that process gets stuck.

J. Paul Taylor has found that some brain diseases, like Alzheimer's and ALS, are linked to a basic process inside brain cells. Scientists hope drugs that tweak the process can treat illnesses.

A coronavirus vaccine could become ineffective if the virus were to undergo certain genetic changes. But so far, so good: Scientists see no evidence that's happening.

Researchers around the world are tracking the mutations in the coronavirus as it reproduces and spreads to ensure changes in the virus do not affect the development of the vaccine.

After a decade of failure in treating Alzheimer's with drugs, the National Institutes of Health is funding a five-year effort in Seattle to learn more about how the disease starts in the brain.

A neurologist who wanted to know how the brain changes in response to a physical disability put his arm in a pink cast for two weeks to find out.

NPR's Ari Shapiro and Michel Martin are joined by NPR's science correspondent Jon Hamilton to talk about the information about the coronavirus learned since the beginning of the pandemic.