In Search of Memory: An Interview with Nobel Laureate Eric Kandel

Science Talk

Scientific American

Science

4.2 • 644 Ratings

🗓️ 24 May 2006

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode, the guest is Eric Kandel, recipient of the 2000 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. Kandel discusses his research, his personal background and their intersection. He talks about what kinds of scientific investigation he finds most interesting and worthwhile and where he would concentrate if he were beginning his research career today. These and other subjects are also themes of his new book, In Search of Memory, and his article in the current issue (April/May) of Scientific American Mind, called The New Science of Mind. After the interview, we'll also test your knowledge about some recent science in the news. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode is presented by eBay.
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0:54.4	Welcome to Science Talk, the podcast of Scientific American for the seven days starting May 24th.
0:55.8	I'm Steve Murseky.
1:03.0	This week on a special edition of the podcast, we'll talk with Eric Candel, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
1:09.8	Candel shared the Nobel in the year 2000 with Arvid Carlson and Paul Greenguard, officially for, quote,
1:12.3	their discoveries concerning signal transduction in the nervous system, end quote.
1:15.0	But it's easier than that to remember what Candel did because his work concerns memory,
1:19.4	how learning and memory happen at the cellular and molecular level.
1:24.3	Candel's newly published autobiography is called In Search of Memory, and a brief
1:28.9	adaptation from the book appears in the current issue, the April-May issue, of Scientific American
1:34.7	Mind magazine. The complexity of mammals led Candel to try to find a simpler organism to use
1:41.3	in his studies. The marine snail applesia fit the bill, having only about
1:45.1	20,000 nerve cells compared with about 100 billion in the human brain. The snail has a simple
1:51.0	reflex by which it protects its gills, and Candell used that reflex to study how the snail learned
1:57.4	and remembered stimuli. He showed that short-term memory involves increased levels of neurotransmitters at the synapses,
	...

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