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Welcome to the Neuroscience for Kids Newsletter.
In this issue:
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Neuroscience for Kids had several new additions in January including:
A. January Neuroscience for Kids Newsletter was archived
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/news2201.html
B. Neuroscience in the News
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/inthenews.html
The Neuroscience for Kids "Site of the Month" for February is the "Allen Brain Atlas" at:
The Allen Institute for Brain Science is doing some fantastic work to better understand the mysteries of the brain. Much of the research done by scientists at the Allen Institute is made available to the public. Some of my favorite resources from the Allen Institute are its brain reference atlases. Currently, there are five brain atlases online: adult mouse, adult human, developing mouse, developing human and mouse spinal cord.
Click on one of the atlases to open up a viewer. You will see a large brain section with outlines around major structures. Click on any area of the section to see the name of the structure. The adult mouse atlas presents each brain section with one side showing the major structures outlined and the other side stained to show neuron cell bodies. Other atlases have an option (choose "Nissl" from the Atlas dropdown menu at the upper right) that provides the cell stain as a background for the outlined structures. Use the wheel on your computer mouse to zoom in and out of each section. If you zoom in on the cerebral cortex, you will be able to see the different densities of neurons in different cortical layers.
Although the atlases are intended for scientists to use when they perform their own experiments, I think the atlases are a great way for everyone to appreciate the wonders of the brain.
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The 2018 Neuroscience for Kids Poetry Contest is now closed and judging has begun. Winners will be contacted by email and sent their prizes. Some of the winning poems will be published in this newsletter next month.
__________________________________________________________Many Neuroscience for Kids Newsletter readers have seen the BrainWorks TV shows that I have created. I would like to make a new BrainWorks episode about Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs). The Dana Foundation has been very generous in providing some funding to get started, but I need to raise some additional funds. So, I am trying something new: crowdfunding!
The University of Washington has created a crowdfunding web site to help support BrainWorks. Please visit the web site, send the website URL to all of your friends, tweet about the effort, and post the URL to your social media sites so we can get the show made. Every little bit of support helps!
BrainWorks Crowdfunding Web Site:
https://uw.useed.net/projects/1010/home/__________________________________________________________
A. "Imagining the jellyfish apocalypse" by Rebecca Giggs (THE ATLANTIC, January-February, 2018).
B. "Think 'birdbrain' is an insult? Think again" by Virginia Morell (NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, February, 2018).
C. "Chimps, horses, kangaroos and even bees can be righties or lefties" by Steve Mirsky (SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, February, 2018.)
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A. Encephalartos is a genus of tree found in Africa. The name "Encephalartos" comes from the Greek words "en" meaning "within," "kephali" meaning "head," and "artos" meaning "bread."
B. Last month, singer Neil Diamond (age, 77 years old) revealed that he has Parkinson's disease.
C. Last month, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates revealed that his father has Alzheimer's disease.
D. Only 27.3% of the high school students in the United States gets enough sleep each night. (Source: Wheaton AG, Jones SE, Cooper AC, Croft JB. Short Sleep Duration Among Middle School and High School Students - United States, 2015. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2018;67:85-90. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6703a1)
E. The tectum is an area of the midbrain responsible for processing auditory and visual information. The word "tectum" comes from the Latin word meaning "roof."
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Help Neuroscience for Kids
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Your comments and suggestions about this newsletter and the "Neuroscience for Kids" web site are always welcome. If there are any special topics that you would like to see on the web site, just let me know.
Eric
Eric H. Chudler, Ph.D.
(e-mail: chudler@u.washington.edu)
(URL:
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/neurok.html)