With Good Reason

When Jonathan Dickinson’s father was diagnosed with Huntington’s disease – a fatal neurodegenerative disorder – Jonathan decided to take him on an epic adventure.  They set out on a motorcycle journey through the Himalayas in India, and along the way met sadhus, foreign travelers and locals who became personally invested in the father’s and son’s [...]

The poetry of children in Birmingham, Alabama inspired a recent classical music piece titled “Dream, Child. Hope.” It was composed by Adolphus Hailstork (Old Dominion University), in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.  Hailstork has written music for a number of prestigious ensembles, including the New York Philharmonic and the Chicago Symphony. But his influences sometimes [...]

Some say that books – that is, the printed, non-digital variety – are destined for the trash heap.  Call it the Age of the Kindle.  Ralph Cohen (James Madison University) spent a lifetime collecting books, many of them very rare.  But recently, after 70 years book collecting, he decided to give away thousands of them.  [...]

Brain injury is more common than you might think.  1.5 million people suffer an injury each year in this country alone.  Michael Friedlander is the director of the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute, where they’re looking for ways to help the brain heal itself.  He studies individual nerve cells and says that by stimulating a [...]