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Jon Hamilton
Jon Hamilton is a correspondent for NPR's Science Desk. Currently he focuses on neuroscience and health risks.
In 2014, Hamilton went to Liberia as part of the NPR team that covered Ebola. The team received a Peabody Award for its coverage.
Following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Hamilton was part of NPR's team of science reporters and editors who went to Japan to cover the crisis at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.
Hamilton contributed several pieces to the Science Desk series "The Human Edge," which looked at what makes people the most versatile and powerful species on Earth. His reporting explained how humans use stories, how the highly evolved human brain is made from primitive parts, and what autism reveals about humans' social brains.
In 2009, Hamilton received the Michael E. DeBakey Journalism Award for his piece on the neuroscience behind treating autism.
Before joining NPR in 1998, Hamilton was a media fellow with the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation studying health policy issues. He reported on states that have improved their Medicaid programs for the poor by enrolling beneficiaries in private HMOs.
From 1995-1997, Hamilton wrote on health and medical topics as a freelance writer, after having been a medical reporter for both The Commercial Appeal and Physician's Weekly.
Hamilton graduated with honors from Oberlin College in Ohio with a Bachelor of Arts in English. As a student, he was the editor of the Oberlin Review student newspaper. He earned his master's degree in journalism from Columbia University, where he graduated with honors. During his time at Columbia, Hamilton was awarded the Baker Prize for magazine writing and earned a Sherwood traveling fellowship.
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An experimental cancer drug that helps the brain turn glucose into energy was able to reverse memory loss in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease.
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A drug that restores brain metabolism in mouse models of Alzheimer's also improved cognitive function. The discovery could help researchers find additional pathways to combating the symptoms of this brain disease, beyond the telltale amyloid plaques and tau tangles that are hallmarks of Alzheimer's.
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A new generation of blood tests can help diagnose Alzheimer’s disease. But many doctors don’t yet know how to use them.
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New blood tests are set to change how Alzheimer's is diagnosed and treated by offering an easy way to see if patients have amyloid plaques and tau tangles in their brains — hallmarks of the disease.
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Early in life, the protein Reelin helps assemble the brain. Later on, it appears to protect the organ from Alzheimer’s and other threats to memory and thinking.
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A study of 48 post-mortem brains found a protein that appears to protect brain cells from Alzheimer's — even in people who had significant amounts of amyloid plaques in their brains.
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Scientists scanned the brains of people who took psilocybin, including a member of the research team. The scans showed how the drug disrupts key networks, potentially enhancing brain plasticity.
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A prominent brain scientist took psilocybin as part of his own study on how it affects the brain. The results of his findings could help researchers to further unlock its "therapeutic potential."
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The brain appears to rely on synchronized waves to wash out waste products, including toxins associated with Alzheimer's disease.
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The brain needs to flush out waste products to stay healthy and fend off conditions like Alzheimer's disease. Scientists are beginning to understand how the the brain's waste removal system works.