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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Lab-grown brainlike organoids altered with an ancient gene began to look and behave differently. The experiments help show how the human brain has evolved. -
A brain organoid grown with Neanderthal DNA reveals how evolution shaped the brains of modern humans and adds to evidence that brain differences helped us survive while our human cousins went extinct.
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Two new studies show the potential of personalized brain stimulation to treat psychiatric disorders. The approach delivers pulses of electric or magnetic energy to certain areas in the brain.
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COVID-19 can damage the brain, causing long-term problems with thinking and memory. New research suggests the damage comes from the immune system's reaction to the coronavirus, not the virus itself.
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A synthetic version of the psychedelic drug ibogaine appears to relieve depression and addiction without producing hallucinations or other dangerous side effects — at least in rodents.
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Researchers launched a major study of an experimental Alzheimer's drug this summer. They also learned a lot about how to protect participants who must make frequent visits to a medical center.
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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.
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Two new human studies back earlier hints that vaccines designed to prevent respiratory infections might also provide some protection against Alzheimer's disease.
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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.
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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.
