Does anyone here care to know what Leon Trotsky's great grandaughter does here in the United States?

[NNadir]

Nora Volkow is director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. She is Leon Trotsky's great-granddaughter.

Born in Mexico City, Volkow grew up in the house where Trotsky was killed. She attended the Modern American School, then earned a medical degree from National University of Mexico before going to New York University for psychiatric residency. She had a professional career at Brookhaven National Laboratory before becoming director of NIDA in May 2003.

Nora Volkow has been director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse since 2003. Her imaging studies of the brains of people addicted to drugs have helped to clarify the mechanisms of drug addiction. They have also helped to change the public's view of drug addiction, from that of a moral violation or character flaw to an understanding that pathological changes to brain structure make it very difficult for addicts to give up their addictions. Volkow has shown that abnormalities in the prefrontal cortex of addicts create a feeling of need or craving that addicts know is irrational but cannot prevent. Prefrontal abnormalities also make it difficult to override compulsions to take drugs by exercising cognitive control.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nora_Volkow

I actually read one of Trotsky's (Leon) books, his biography of Stalin.

A fun read.

[RagAss]

1. Good for her...Doing good work.

[NNadir]

3. She seems to be a fine scientist, but I hope no one ever comes up to her and says,

"I'd like to pick your brain..."

Sorry. I just couldn't resist.

[RagAss]

7. Hehehheeeeee.

[mix]

2. thanks nt

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. I'm pleased to hear this.

:hi:

[UTUSN]

5. Is this good or bad?11 n/t

[NNadir]

6. In and of itself, neither. It's simply interesting. Dr. Volkow of course bears no

responsibility for her great grandfather's actions, any more than I bear responsibility for my grandfather, who used to get drunk and beat up his whole family.

That experience, being beat up and watching his mother get beat up by his progenitor, certainly didn't keep my father from being a very fine man who I miss a great deal.

A cursory look at Dr. Volkow's work suggests that she is a fine scientist and a fine human being, even though, being a Mexican, she is at risk at being arrested by NKVD types in Arizona for, um, being Mexican.

It is a little odd, of course, to think of Trotsky's descendent's ending up as an employee of the United States government though, although, again, being Trotsky's descendant has very little to do with her life, except as a matter of interest.