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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The Food and Drug Administration has approved a device that uses electrical stimulation to reduce inflammation from rheumatoid arthritis.
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Parkinson’s Disease affects around a million people in the United States. And that number is on the rise, in part because our population is getting older. Dr. Claire Henchcliffe, chair of neurology at the University of California, Irvine, is one of the scientists at the forefront of Parkinson’s research. She's working toward new treatment options for Parkinson’s, including recent discoveries about the potential use of stem cells. Science correspondent Jon Hamilton dives into this research — and even a future where scientists can prevent the disease altogether — on the show with Henchcliffe. Interested in more on the future of brain science? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org – we may feature it in an upcoming episode! Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave. -
Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are surgically implanted devices that link the brain to a computer. They can be helpful for people who’ve lost the ability to move or speak. And they’re making progress. New generations of BCIs could go as far as to detect a person’s inner monologue. But that progress is raising questions about the future privacy of our brains, and has some scientists asking, “What happens when you want to keep some things to yourself?” NPR brain correspondent Jon Hamilton talks to Short Wave’s Emily Kwong about the future of BCIs. Read more of Jon’s reporting on brain implants. Interested in more on the future of brain science? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org – we may feature it in an upcoming episode! Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave. -
A report that health secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has promised will come out this month will look at the causes of autism. Many worry it will have claims unsupported by science. -
People with generalized anxiety disorder improved significantly after they got a single dose of LSD powerful enough to induce a psychedelic trip. -
A new study finds that a single dose of LSD can ease a person's anxiety for months. This could give legitimacy to research on a range of psychedelics.
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People who inherit two copies of a common gene variant are very likely to develop Alzheimer's disease. Learning you are one of those people can be tough. Three scientists are in this situation.
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Three scientists learned they carry genes that dramatically increase their risk for Alzheimer's disease. Now they're working to keep their brains healthy. -
Even years after an arm is amputated, the brain maintains a detailed map of the limb and tries to interact with this phantom appendage. -
Even years after a person has lost an arm, the brain faithfully maintains the circuits that once controlled the missing limb.
