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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 August including:
A. August Neuroscience for Kids Newsletter was archived
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/news2508.html
B. New Neuroscience in the News
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/inthenews.html
C. New Neurocalendars
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/neurocal.html
D. Visit or follow my Instagram site with neuroscience facts and trivia:
https://www.instagram.com/ericchudler/
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The Neuroscience for Kids "Site of the Month" for September is "Scientist on the Subway" at:
I asked Leslie Sibener (SciSub co-founder) and Ben Silver (SciSub writer), who are both graduate students at Columbia University, to describe SciSub:
Scientist on the Subway (SciSub) is a blog dedicated to telling the personal stories of scientists who are underrepresented in their fields to 1) dispel the myths of what scientists should look like and 2) build an honest, public representation of science and scientists. By increasing the visibility of diverse scientists (e.g. gender, race, age, career stage), SciSub fosters a perspective that scientists can come from any background and succeed.
With our profiles, we do not just list credentials and explain research, but take aim to humanize scientists by highlighting their personal challenges, triumphs, and multifaceted identities. We show that scientists are not only tenured professors, but can also be high school summer researchers, graduate students, science advocates on Capitol Hill, and biotech innovators. SciSub seeks to tell as many stories as possible, and encourages the public to see science as an effective, vibrant, and welcoming community that is critically woven into society.
Do you know a scientist who has a story and perspective to share? Consider nominating them, or yourself, to be featured in a SciSub profile through this form:
https://forms.gle/3AtZDkMLWrkLnVZP9
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Last month, 94 high school students from several states in the US and some from overseas participated in the Center for Neurotechnology Young Scholars Program-REACH. In the past I have run the REACH on the University of Washington campus but because of the COVID-19 pandemic, I ran the program virtually. During the five-day program, high school students were introduced to the topics of neuroscience, neural engineering, and neuroethics and used the online textbook, "Exploring Neuroscience and Neurotechnologies at Home," that I wrote with Dr. Kristen Bergsman. Read more about the REACH program and the online textbook:
I hope to welcome students on the University of Washington campus next summer for the 2022 REACH program.
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"The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat: And Other Clinical Tales"
by Oliver Sacks. New York: Summit Books, 1985.
(Review written by Mina F., an 8th grader in Northern California.)
"The Man Who Mistook His Wife" for a Hat by Oliver Sacks wonderfully dissects the brain's inner workings and its ties to neuroscience and psychology by connecting real patients' stories with the science and the reasoning behind them. Through great storytelling, Sacks explains how the inner workings of the brain are deeply rooted in behavior. Sacks explains what happened to The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, The Disembodied Lady, The Man Who Fell out of Bed, and many more all while helping the reader understand the brain and human thought. This is a gripping well written and descriptive book.
I would recommend this book for readers who are 12 years old and up. It is more of a dense read and written for adults but many younger people can read it. It was also last updated in 1985 and may reflect some older schools of thought but is still very relevant today.
I liked this book because it has lots of interesting stories of cases, and also gives each one an explanation. I loved reading about phantom limbs and the visions of Hildegard of Bingen while learning about psychology. It was also interesting to learn that the author who spent almost fifty years working as a neurologist and writing many books, also has face blindness, meaning he can't recognize or differentiate faces
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The Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience completed its 2021 Art of Neuroscience competition. The competition received almost 300 entries from people in more than 20 countries. You can view the entries on the Art of Neuroscience website at:
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A. The September 2021 issue of SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN magazine has several articles about autoimmune diseases.
B. The cover story of the September/October 2021 issue of DISCOVER magazine is titled "Mind + Body Mysteries."
C. The cover story of the September 2021 issue of SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MIND magazine is titled "It's in the Eyes."
D. The September 2021 issue of MIT TECHNOLOGY REVIEW magazine is titled "The Mind Issue" with many articles about neuroscience and the brain.
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A. By 2060, almost 14 million people in the U.S. will be living with dementia, including Alzheimer's disease. The annual cost of dementia in the U.S, estimated at $305 billion in 2020, is expected to rise to $1.5 trillion by 2050. (Reference: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Reducing the Impact of Dementia in America: A Decadal Survey of the Behavioral and Social Sciences. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/26175.)
B. A 310 million-year-old fossilize brain from a horseshoe crab was recently discovered. (Reference: Bicknell, R.D.C. et al., Central nervous system of a 310-m.y.-old horseshoe crab: Expanding the taphonomic window for nervous system preservation. Geology 2021; doi: https://doi.org/10.1130/G49193.1).
C. In 1938, English science fiction writer H.G. Wells published a series of essays and lectures about how to solve the world's problems; Wells titled this work "World Brain."
D. Last month, actress Christina Applegate revealed that she has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a neurological disease that occurs when the insulating material (myelin) around nerve cells is damaged.
E. "Every day shows us that consciousness and volition may be disturbed by the slightest accident to the head and that disease seldom invades the brain without dethroning the mental powers." -- Samuel Solly (from "The Human Brain: Its Structure, Physiology and Diseases," 1847)
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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.