This is Scientific Americans 60 Second Science. I'm Steve Mursky.

Parkinson's is the second most common neurodegenerative disease.

Neuroscientist Todd Shearer,

CEO of the Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson's research.

Fox, of course, is the actor who has become

the public face of Parkinson's.

And it is mostly its symptoms are characterized by motor symptoms.

So patients or people have Parkinson's will have a slowness of movement.

They could have a tremor in their arms, a lot of trouble walking,

and they can also have rigidity, so it's hard to really bend and flex their muscles and

limbs.

That's the predominant symptoms that people have.

April 11th is World Parkinson's Day, so designated because it's the birthday of Dr.

James Parkinson, who described the condition 200 years ago in

1817. I spoke to Shearer April 10th. I mean I think one of the things that has

changed a lot about in Parkinson's disease and in the last decade

and I do think a lot of this has to is because of the work of Michael J Fox is

really raising awareness about this disease.

Parkinson's disease is something that people live with.

It's part of their life, but they are able to live with this

and be productive and have make great contributions to the world and also the contributions that they can make towards the search for a cure.

So I think by raising awareness, it can help people who have the disease today and their families deal with the disease get the right

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