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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Doug Whitney was supposed to develop Alzheimer's by 50. Now scientists are trying to understand why his brain remains healthy at 75. -
A man with genetic mutation that causes Alzheimer's to appear before age 50 remains cognitively fine in his mid 70s. Understanding why could lead to new treatments for the disease.
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Three patients with spinal muscular atrophy had improved muscle strength and could walk farther after a month of daily spinal stimulation. -
An experimental treatment that stimulates the spinal cord may help people with a paralyzing genetic disorder called spinal muscular atrophy.
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Electrical stimulation of the spinal cord strengthened the muscles of three people with spinal muscular atrophy, a rare motor neuron disease.
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The next big advance in treating diseases like rheumatoid arthritis could be tiny pulses of electricity delivered to the vagus nerve. -
When military personnel fire certain powerful weapons, they may be exposed to blast waves that damage blood vessels in the brain. -
The FDA says esketamine, an antidepressant derived from the anesthetic and party drug ketamine, can now be prescribed on its own. It was approved in 2019 to treat severe depression. -
Two Marines suspect that years of firing powerful weapons caused them to develop the same rare, and potentially fatal, brain condition. -
In zebrafish, ketamine causes changes a brain circuit involved in "giving up." That may help explain how the drug helps people with depression.
