About Melek Firat Altay

Melek Firat Altay is a neuroscientist, biologist and musician. Her research focuses on deciphering the molecular and cellular mechanisms of neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental disorders.

Melek Firat Altay is a neuroscientist, biologist and musician. Her research focuses on deciphering the molecular and cellular mechanisms of neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental disorders.

NBN Episodes hosted by Melek Firat:

Libuse Hannah Veprek, "At the Edge of AI: Human Computation Systems and Their Intraverting Relations" (Transcript, 2024)

November 8, 2024

At the Edge of AI

Libuse Hannah Veprek

How are human computation systems developed in the field of citizen science to achieve what neither humans nor computers can do alone? In At the Edg…

Camilla Nord, "The Balanced Brain: The Science of Mental Health" (Princeton UP, 2024)

September 20, 2024

The Balanced Brain

Camilla Nord

There are many routes to mental well-being. In this groundbreaking book, neuroscientist Camilla Nord offers a fascinating tour of the scientific devel…

Lisa M. P. Munoz, "Women in Science Now: Stories and Strategies for Achieving Equity" (Columbia UP, 2023)

June 16, 2024

Women in Science Now

Lisa M. P. Munoz

Women working in the sciences face obstacles at virtually every step along their career paths. From subtle slights to blatant biases, deep systemic pr…

Ludovic Slimak, "The Naked Neanderthal: A New Understanding of the Human Creature" (Pegasus Books, 2023)

January 26, 2024

The Naked Neanderthal

Ludovic Slimak

What do we really know about our cousins, the Neanderthals? For over a century we saw Neanderthals as inferior to Homo Sapiens. More recently, the pe…

Jonathan B. Losos, "The Cat's Meow: How Cats Evolved from the Savanna to Your Sofa" (Viking, 2023)

December 20, 2023

The Cat's Meow

Jonathan B. Losos

The domestic cat--your cat--has, from its evolutionary origins in Africa, been transformed in comparatively little time into one of the most successfu…

Lawrence Sherman and Dennis Plies, "Every Brain Needs Music: The Neuroscience of Making and Listening to Music" (Columbia UP, 2023)

December 16, 2023

Every Brain Needs Music

Lawrence Sherman and Dennis Plies

Whenever a person engages with music--when a piano student practices a scale, a jazz saxophonist riffs on a melody, a teenager sobs to a sad song, or …

Mark Munsterhjelm, "Forensic Colonialism: Genetics and the Capture of Indigenous Peoples" (McGill-Queen's UP, 2023)

December 10, 2023

Forensic Colonialism

Mark Munsterhjelm

Forensic genetic technologies are popularly conceptualized and revered as important tools of justice. The research and development of these technologi…

Anne Mendelson, "Spoiled: The Myth of Milk as Superfood" (Columbia UP, 2023)

November 22, 2023

Spoiled

Anne Mendelson

Why is cows' milk, which few nonwhite people can digest, promoted as a science-backed dietary necessity in countries where the majority of the populat…

Trenton W. Holliday, "Cro-Magnon: The Story of the Last Ice Age People of Europe" (Columbia UP, 2023)

October 23, 2023

Cro-Magnon

Trenton W. Holliday
Listen:

During the Last Ice Age, Europe was a cold, dry place teeming with mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, reindeer, bison, cave bears, cave hyenas, and cave l…

Quinn Eastman, "The Woman Who Couldn't Wake Up: Hypersomnia and the Science of Sleepiness" (Columbia UP, 2023)

July 7, 2023

The Woman Who Couldn't Wake Up

Quinn Eastman
Listen:

Sleep was taking over Anna's life. Despite multiple alarm clocks and powerful stimulants, the young Atlanta lawyer could sleep for thirty or even fift…

Helle Porsdam, "Science as a Cultural Human Right" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2022)

June 28, 2023

Science as a Cultural Human Right

Helle Porsdam
Listen:

The human right to science, outlined in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and repeated in the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, So…

Tom Higham, "The World Before Us: The New Science Behind Our Human Origins" (Yale UP, 2021)

June 24, 2023

The World Before Us

Tom Higham
Listen:

Fifty thousand years ago, Homo sapiens was not the only species of humans in the world. There were also Neanderthals in what is now Europe, the Near E…

John D. Aber, "Less Heat, More Light: A Guided Tour of Weather, Climate, and Climate Change" (Yale UP, 2023)

May 29, 2023

Less Heat, More Light

John D. Aber

Climate change is one of the most hotly contested environmental topics of our day. To answer criticisms and synthesize available information, scientis…

James Charney, "Madness at the Movies: Understanding Mental Illness through Film" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2023)

May 2, 2023

Madness at the Movies

James Charney

The study of classic and contemporary films can provide a powerful avenue to understand the experience of mental illness. In Madness at the Movies: Un…

Moheb Costandi, "Body Am I: The New Science of Self-Consciousness" (MIT Press, 2022)

April 3, 2023

Body Am I

Moheb Costandi

How the way we perceive our bodies plays a critical role in the way we perceive ourselves: stories of phantom limbs, rubber hands, anorexia, and other…