When it comes to exploring the mind-boggling complexity of living systems—ranging from the origins of human consciousness to treatments for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s—Susan Fitzpatrick has long been a critic of reductionist thinking. In this episode we talk with Fitzpatrick, who has spent three decades supporting brain research as president of the James S. McDonnell Foundation, about new ways to understand the human brain, the difficulty of developing an effective Alzheimer’s treatment, and how scientific research can successfully confront complex problems.

Further reading:

• The James S. McDonnell Foundation website
• Susan Fitzpatrick’s review of Metazoa by Peter Godfrey-Smith and Life’s Edge by Carl Zimmer
• Her review of Brains Through Time by Georg F. Striedter and R. Glenn Northcutt
• Her review of Mind Fixers by Anne Harrington
• Her review of Chasing Men on Fire by Stephen G. Waxman and Understanding the Brain by John E. Dowling
• “Asking the Right Questions in Alzheimer’s Research,” her Feature essay in the Fall 2018 Issues in Science and Technology