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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 May including:
A. May Neuroscience for Kids Newsletter was archived
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/news2505.html
B. New Neuroscience in the News
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/inthenews.html
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The Neuroscience for Kids "Site of the Month" for June is "Deep Time" at:
Deep Time is a project that sent 15 people into a cave to live for 40 days without any sunlight or way to tell the time. The purpose of the mission was to understand how the brain adapts when a person loses touch with time. The 15 team members emerged from the cave on April 24, 2021, and their experiences are documented on the Deep Time website. Explore the website to learn why the mission took place and about the people who made the cave their home for 40 days. Click on the "Expedition" link to see some great photographs of the team preparing for the mission and for a look from inside the cave. If you understand French, you might enjoy the podcast series made by the team while they were inside the cave.
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Seattle STEM educator and curriculum designer Dr. Kristen Bergsman recently developed a neuroscience badge that extends the Brownies "Senses" badge for Girl Scouts. Check her blog for a description of how to engage young scientists (Brownies- and Juniors-aged) in an exploration of the brain and nervous system. The badge journey includes experiences and activities related to brain structure and function, neurons and communication, brain health and safety (with a focus on sports-related concussions), spinal cord injuries, and the senses. Visit the blog at:
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New research suggests that dogs are able to use their extraordinary sense of smell to detect the presence of COVID-19 infections. If these data are confirmed, you might see dogs stationed at stadiums, concerts, train stations and airports to screen many people quickly.
Scientists are unsure what the sniffer dogs are smelling, but it is possible that a COVID-19 infection produces a distinct odor that can be detected. So far, there are few published studies using COVID-19 sniffing dogs, but the results are promising: in one experiment, dogs were able to detect 83% of COVID-19 positive samples taken from the mouths and windpipes of people hospitalized with COVID-19. Studies with more dogs and more samples are needed to confirm these data.
If it turns out that dogs can be accurate COVID-19 detectors, then public health workers will have another method to test for the presence of COVID-19 and another reason why dogs are our "best friends."
Source: Nature 587, 530-531 (2020)
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PBS is currently broadcasting a new series titled "Human: The World Within." The programs take a look inside the human body to examine how we work. The six episodes include A) Birth, B) Pulse, C) Fuel, D) Defend, E) Sense and F) React. The episodes Sense and React focus on the nervous system. For more about this PBS series, see:
https://www.pbs.org/show/human-world-within/
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A. The Society for Neuroscience is now accepting entries for its annual Brain Awareness Video Contest. The contest is open to everyone, although non-members must have their videos submitted by a Society member. Entries are due by midnight, June 28, 2021. For more details about the contest, see:
https://www.brainfacts.org/for-educators/programs-and-events/bavc-rules-and-guidelines
B. The International Neuroethics Society and the International Youth Neuroscience Association are sponsoring the 2021 Neuroethics Essay Contest in 2021. There is a special category for entries from high school students. The deadline for entries is July 2, 2021.
https://www.neuroethicssociety.org/essay-call
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A. "Electrodes That Stimulate the Brain Reveal the Roots of Conscious Experience by Christof Koch (SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, June, 2021).
B. "Genetic Therapies for Brain Diseases" by Diana Kwon and Nature magazine (SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN HEALTH & MEDICINE, June, 2021).
C. "The Power of Sleep" is the cover story of the May 1, 2021, issue of BBC SCIENCE FOCUS magazine.
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A. The Chinese red-headed centipede (Scolopendra subspinipes mutilans) uses a neurotoxin called Spooky Toxin (SsTx) to subdue its prey. The toxin interferes with a neuron's potassium ion channels. (Source: Luo, L. et al., Centipedes subdue giant prey by blocking KCNQ channels, PNAS, 115:1646-1651, 2018)
B. "I like going from one lighted room to another, such is my brain to me; lighted rooms." (Quote from Virginia Woolf [1924], in Leonard Woolf, ed., A Writer's Diary, 1953.)
C. Several Nobel Prize winning neuroscientists were born in June including Allvar Gullstrand (June 5, 1862), Henry Hallett Dale (June 9, 1875), Otto Loewi (June 3, 1875), Georg Von Bekesy (June 3, 1899), Torsten N. Wiesel (June 3, 1924) and Bert Sakmann (June 12, 1942).
D. A mosquito has about 220,000 neurons in its brain and the common fruit fly has about 200,000 neurons in its brain. (Source: Raji JI, Potter CJ (2021) The number of neurons in Drosophila and mosquito brains. PLoS ONE 16(5): e0250381. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0250381)
E. June is National Aphasia Awareness Month and Vision Research Month.
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Chudler at: chudler@u.washington.edu
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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.