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Health

Interview: The Indiana Jones of neurology

By Curtis Abraham

30 January 2008

New Scientist. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

(Image: John Soares)

Not many Harvard professors have their life story turned into a film starring Will Smith but that’s what is happening to Allen Counter. His research has taken him from the Amazon rainforests to the Arctic Circle, and for much of the past 20 years he has been looking at the neurological effects of lead and mercury poisoning in indigenous communities in the Andes, as well as exploring another subject close to his heart: the “lost” African communities of the Americas. Curtis Abraham hears all about it.

What started your fascination with exploration?

As a child in…

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