A Science Odyssey

1900: Many people suffer from the stresses the industrial, urbanizing society, experiencing a variety of nervous disorders, such as insomnia, headaches, anxiety, and exhaustion. Some doctors think this is a disease they call "neurasthenia," and there are many patent medicines claiming to be cures. Some think that you are born with a temperament toward this condition, as are those who succumb to serious mental illness and are confined to asylums for the insane. A few doctors begin to look for a way to treat the mind, rather than the body, to cure these conditions. Today: Science has come to understand that our mental condition is part of a complex interplay between our biology and our environment. We have identified brain structures and chemistry which control behavior and have produced medicines which affect our behavior. We have begun to identify the genes that control the molecules of the brain.