Home The membership of Science Writers in New York (SWINY) is composed of editors and writers who cover science and medicine in the print and electronic news media as well as public relations professionals who promote science. Anyone with an interest in science communication is welcome to become a dues paying member, and non-members are encouraged to attend our events.
We invite you to explore our site. You can also find us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.
For more information, feel free to contact a board member or email info@swiny.org.
By admin, on January 19th, 2012 The Max Planck Florida Institute (MPFI) and Science Writers in New York (SWINY) cordially invite you to two days of neuroscience programs: A public lecture on January 31 and an intimate briefing — just for science journalists — on February 1
 “Insight must precede application.” – Max Planck (image courtesy Smithsonian Institution) Of 80 Max Planck Society scientific institutes across the globe, Max Planck Florida Institute is the first established in North America. MPFI brings together the field’s leading senior neuroscientists and best young researchers, representing a diversity of scientific disciplines and approaches, to seek fundamental answers about brain function and neural circuits. These circuits form the complex synaptic networks of the brain, which determine who we are, how we think, and how we behave.Understanding the functional organization of the nervous system, its capacity to produce perception, thought, language, memory, emotion, and action, remains the ultimate challenge for biology. These circuits hold the key to understanding how to ameliorate the effects of devastating neurological, neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders such as autism, epilepsy, schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s disease.
Among MPFI’s top scientists is internationally known neurobiologist David Fitzpatrick, PhD. Dr. Fitzpatrick joined the Institute last year from Duke University, where he was founding director of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, to lead the new institute as CEO and Scientific Director, as well as leading the research group studying functional development of the visual cortex.
Research began at MPFI late in 2009. Currently working in temporary facilities on the campus of Florida Atlantic University, the Institute will move into a state-of-the-art research building on campus this summer.
On January 31, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., at German House, 871 U.N. Plaza, join David Fitzpatrick, PhD, CEO & Scientific Director of Max Planck Florida Institute, and Joshua Sanes, PhD, Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology and Paul J. Finnegan Family Director, Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, for a public dialogue entitled, “Which Way Did It Go? New Insights into the Organization and Development of Brain Circuits that Compute Motion Direction.” The two experts will discuss their research in this area and its significance for understanding brain function and development. The free program is sponsored by the German Center for Research and Innovation and Max Planck Florida Institute. A reception follows. For more information on this program, click here.
On February 1, from 9:30 from 11:00 a.m., also at German House, 871 U.N. Plaza, science journalists will have coffee with Dr. Fitzpatrick and colleagues and get an inside look at the new Institute, its recent research findings, its unique approach to research, and its leading edge scientific agenda.
In the February 1 program, Dr. Fitzpatrick will discuss the scientific questions each of the Institute’s six research groups hopes to answer, including his lab, which examines visual experience and perception in development of the cortex. This research has implications for understanding neurodevelopmental disorders. Nobel laureate Dr. Bert Sakmann will participate via Skype to discuss new research findings from his lab, in which his team described their creation of the first realistic representation of a neural circuit. This research is part of a major project of Dr. Sakmann’s lab, in which scientists are working to create a complete 3D map of the rodent brain. This map will increase understanding of how the brain computes, and lay the groundwork for future studies of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
Please RSVP to Dennis Tartaglia for both events, info@tartagliacommunications.com, (732) 545-1848, indicating which event(s) you will attend. Please include your name, media affiliation, address, business and cell numbers.
NOTE: PRE-REGISTRATION AND PHOTO ID ARE REQUIRED FOR BOTH EVENTS. PLEASE REGISTER NO LATER THAN TWO DAYS BEFORE EACH RESPECTIVE PROGRAM. REGISTRATION FOR BOTH EVENTS IS FREE.
By admin, on January 16th, 2012
Imagine…. when you smell a rose, you always taste maple syrup. Or taste cake whenever you say “table.” Or see red every time someone says “Tuesday.” This is synesthesia, a neurologic condition affecting millions of people in which stimulation of one sense automatically and consistently stimulates another. The ancient Greeks named it. Psychophysicist Gustav Fechner and scientist Sir Francis Galton documented it in the late 19th century. Synesthesia research fell out of favor by 1930—then was forgotten until the 1980s.
Author/journalist/synesthete Maureen Seaberg discusses her journey to recognize and understand her expanded sensory wiring—the science, and the impact on thinking and creativity of this fascinating phenomenon.
In her quest to understand why, for example, the letter A is always A for her, Maureen talked with top neuroscientists and quantum physicists, with the co-inventor of the World Wide Web, with a savant, and a Tibetan lama. She collaborated with Dr. William Bushell—a biological/medical anthropologist who is a visiting scholar at MIT and directs the Science of Yoga Project at Tibet House. Synesthetes are often found in the arts—examples include Itzhak Perlman, Lady Gaga, Pharrell Williams, Tilda Swinton, Marilyn Monroe—and Maureen spoke with rock stars, rappers, actors, violinists. The result is Tasting the Universe, published last March. Her book features a raft of first-time interviews with synesthetes that include Itzhak Perlman, Billy Joel, and Marian McPartland.
Maureen has become an expert in this mingling of the senses. She moderated international synesthesia workshops in 2010 and 2011 organized by the Center for Consciousness Studies at the University of Arizona in Tucson. She has presented at the American Synesthesia Association Conference at Vanderbilt University, and at New York University. (Maureen’s earlier work has appeared in The New York Times, the Daily News, PBS, and MSNBC among others.)
WHO:
Maureen Seaberg and Dr. William Bushell will speak, followed by a Q&A.
Books will be available for purchase, and the author will sign them.
WHEN:
Thursday, January 26, 2012, 6–8pm
WHERE:
ASME Headquarters Conference Room, 3 Park Ave. at 34th St. (22nd Floor)
ADMISSION:
SWINY member–$5, nonmember–$10, student–$5.
RSVP HERE
(Join SWINY or renew your lapsed membership for just $25 and pay the member’s fee.)
By admin, on December 21st, 2011  Courtesy of NIMH. Millions in the U.S. suffer from psychological disorders including depression, anxiety, and insomnia. Millions more endure chronic pain. Although drugs are typically used to control symptoms, questionable efficacy and negative side effects have spurred the search for alternative treatment methodologies.
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)—which noninvasively administers brief, magnetic pulses to the brain—is one approach. Done in the doctor’s office, pulses are administered by passing high currents through an electromagnetic coil adjacent to a patient’s scalp. They induce an electric field in underlying brain tissue that activates neurons in the relevant brain structure.
Cranial Electrotherapy Stimulation (CES) involves a small, imperceptible electric current pulsed across the patient’s head in a device that can be used at home. One is the Fisher Wallace Stimulator, a portable, battery-powered micro-electric pulse generator cleared by the FDA for symptomatic relief of insomnia, anxiety, and depression, and for treating chronic pain.
Deep brain stimulation (DBS) uses a surgically implanted, battery-operated medical device. This neurostimulator—similar to a heart pacemaker—is approximately the size of a stopwatch. It is now used to treat a variety of disabling neurological symptoms for patients whose symptoms cannot be adequately controlled with drugs.
Do They Work? Are They Safe? What is the Science Behind Them?
OUR PANEL:
Dan Iosifescu, M.D., Associate Professor of Psychiatry and of Neuroscience and head of the Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. He is experienced with both TMS and DBS, and his prolific research program focuses on biological markers of treatment outcome in mood disorders. After Dr. Iosifescu received his M.D. in Bucharest, Romania, he spent substantial time at Harvard and Massachusetts General Hospital in specialized training and practice and has been among the “Top Doctors in Boston” (Boston Magazine 2006 and 2008) and the “Best Doctors in America” (in all editions since 2005).
Charles Avery (Chip) Fisher is the president of Fisher Wallace Laboratories, which manufactures the handheld Fisher Wallace Cranial Stimulator. It generates micro-currents of electricity using patented radio frequencies for gently stimulating the brain’s production of serotonin and dopamine. The many peer-reviewed studies and pilot programs—including a successful 399-patient pilot program at Phoenix House—are documented on the company website.
Kelly Brogan, M.D., is a psychiatrist specializing in general adult psychiatry, psychopharmacology, and psychotherapy, and has clinical experience working with the Fisher Wallace Cranial Stimulator.
Abraham Zangen, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University, Israel, is one of the two key inventors of the deep TMS coils used by Brainsway, which has developed a TMS system that uses direct non-invasive activation of deep brain structure through a patented coil design to produce directed electromagnetic fields that can induce excitation or inhibition of neurons deep inside the brain.
Joshua Berman, M.D. Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Columbia University and Director, Program in Experimental Brain Stimulation in the Division of Experimental Therapeutics, at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons. He is currently doing work with deep transcranial magnetic stimulation.
When:
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
6 pm – 8 pm
Where:
ASME Headquarters,
3 Park Avenue (22nd Floor Conference Room)
Admission:
SWINY member: $5, nonmembers: $10, students: $5.
Join SWINY or renew your lapsed membership—valid through December 2012—for just $25, and pay the member’s fee.
RSVP Here
|
|
Connect with SWINY