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Welcome to the Neuroscience for Kids Newsletter.
Here is what you will find in this issue:
1. Important Notice About Neuroscience for Kids
2. What's New at Neuroscience for Kids
3. Neuroscience for Kids Site of the Month
4. Big and Small
5. Stress, Pain and Basketball
6. Scientists on New United States Stamps
7. Media Alert
8. Treasure Trove of Brain Trivia
9. Support Neuroscience for Kids
10. How to Stop Your Subscription
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Over the past year, a few loyal Neuroscience for Kids users have sent donations to help keep Neuroscience for Kids going. Although these gifts have helped, I will have to reduce the time I spend working on Neuroscience for Kids and will not be able to support writers and reviewers. The future of Neuroscience for Kids is unclear. I will attempt to work on the web site and write this monthly newsletter, but I can make few promises. I will look for other sources of funding to support Neuroscience for Kids. If you have any ideas for funding Neuroscience for Kids, please let me know (e-mail: chudler@u.washington.edu).
If you think Neuroscience for Kids is valuable and would like to help, your donations are welcomed; see:
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/help.html
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A. May Neuroscience for Kids Newsletter was archived
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/news95.html
B. Curry Component "Curcumin" Controls Alzheimer's Disease Markers
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/curcu.html
C. Virtual Reality Games May Help Patients with Stroke
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/vgstroke.html
D. Wear RED for the Win
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/seered.html
E. New Meningitis Vaccine Recommended for Children
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/menvc.html
F. Neuroscience for Kids Bookmarks (PDF file)
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/pdf/nfkbkmk.pdf
In May, 15 new figures were added and 114 pages were modified.
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http://www.med.uwo.ca/physiology/courses/medsweb/
Dr. Tutis Vilis, a professor at the University of Western Ontario (London, Ontario, Canada) has created two great web courses. The first course, Sensory Physiology, is written for undergraduate university students; the second course, Neurophysiology, is written for first year medical students.
Sensory Physiology is a set of 12 lessons about vision, touch, hearing,
balance, memory, eye movements and muscle sense. Neurophysiology has nine
lessons that cover movement and reflexes in addition to the senses. Both
courses have many images and animations to help readers understand
different concepts. You can also view and print the material in PDF
format. Each lesson has review questions and links to other web resources
to explore a topic in more detail.
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Here are some more nervous system numbers, both big and small:
0.000002 - width (in centimeters) of the synaptic gap (space between two
neurons)
0.001 - width (in centimeters) of a typical axon
24 - years spent sleeping (assuming 8 hours/day for 72 years)
268 - speed (in miles/hour) of the fastest action potential
1,400 - weight (in grams) of the average human brain
6,000 - weight (in grams) of the average elephant brain
10,000 - number of taste buds in a human (on tongue, palate and
cheeks)
300,000,000 - neurons in the octopus brain
100,000,000,000 - neurons in the human brain
1,000,000,000,000 - glial cells in the brain
240,000,000,000,000 - synapses in the cerebral cortex
1,000,000,000,000,000 - synapses in the brain
References for these numbers can be found on the Facts and Figures page at:
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/facts.html
As I drove toward the basket, I was tripped and fell to the ground. I
didn't think much of the foul and continued to play. A few minutes later,
the player who was guarding me noticed some blood on my shirt. We stopped
the game to find out who was bleeding. I was surprised to find out it was
me! My knee was bleeding from a large cut that must have happened when I
was fouled. The cut did not hurt until after we had stopped the game
and someone pointed out that I was the one who was bleeding.
Our bodies release various chemicals to help us cope with stressful
situations. Endorphins are among these chemicals. The word "endorphins"
comes from combining two words meaning "endogenous" and "morphine." In
other words, the endorphins are our own morphine-like drugs that reduce
pain. Pain during times of stress may distract an animal and prevent it
from dealing with the situation by escaping or fighting. The endorphins
act to reduce pain until the stressful situation is over. That's what
happened to me: even though I was injured, I continued playing the game
and did not feel the cut. The cut did not hurt until I stopped
playing.
For more about neuroscientists and neuroscience on postage stamps, see:
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/stamps/stamps.html
B. "Polio's Back. Why Now?" by Jeffery Kluger (Time magazine, May 16,
2005) describes how the number of cases of polio has increased in Africa
and other parts of the world.
C. "Medication & Melancholy" by Marianne Szegedy-Maszak (US News & World
Report, May 16, 2005) discusses depression, drugs, and kids.
D. The June 2005 issue of Scientific American "Mind" is on newsstands.
This issue has articles about consciousness, dreams, confessing to crimes
and lying.
E. "His Brain, Her Brain" by Larry Cahill (Scientific American, May,
2005) discusses the differences between male and female brains and how
these differences may influence treatments for psychiatric disorders.
F. "How to Keep Your Hearing" is the cover story in the June 6, 2005,
issue of Newsweek magazine.
G. "Killers in Paradise" (Smithsonian Magazine, June, 2005) describes the
venomous box jellyfish. Also see:
B. Ears can be found on the thorax, abdomen, legs, wings and mouths of
different insects. (Source: Fullard, J.M. and Yack, J.E. The
evolutionary biology of insect hearing, Trends Ecol. Evol., 8:248-252,
1993.)
C. The brain of a 136 kg (300 pound) swordfish weighs only 2.2 grams
(0.005 pounds). An adult human brain weighs approximately 1,400 grams (3
pounds). (Source: Carey, F.G., A brain heater in the swordfish, Science,
216:1327-1329, 1982.)
D. Caffeine is the most widely used behaviorally active drug in the world.
(Source: Juliano, L.M. and Griffiths, R.R. A critical review of caffeine
withdrawal: empirical validation of symptoms and signs, incidence,
severity, and associated features. Psychpharmacol., 176:1-29, 2004.)
E. You can often hear doctors on television shows yell "Stat!" The word
"stat" is a shortened version of the Latin word "statim" that means
immediately or at once. (Source: Haubrich, W.S., Medical Meanings.
Glossary of Word Origins, 2nd edition, Philadelphia: American College of
Physicians, 2003.)
Help Neuroscience for Kids
__________________________________________________________5. STRESS, PAIN AND BASKETBALL
Because I play basketball once or twice a week, I am used to the regular
bumps and bruises that come with the game. Last month I experienced a
common way that the body responds to stress: pain relief ("analgesia").
__________________________________________________________6. SCIENTISTS ON NEW UNITED STATES POSTAGE STAMPS
On May 4, 2005, the United States Postal Service issued four postage
stamps to honor four American scientists. The stamps feature Josiah
Willard Gibbs (electromagnetic theory, thermodynamics), Barbara McClintock
(genetics), John von Neumann (math, computers) and Richard P. Feynman
(physics). There were no neuroscientists represented in this
distinguished group, but the United States does have a stamp that honors
neurosurgeon Harvey Cushing. Neuroscientists do appear on stamps from
other countries, for example, Santiago Ramon y Cajal, Camillo Golgi and
Roger Sperry (Sweden), Antonio Caetano De Abreu Freire Egas Moniz
(Portugal), Otto Loewi (Austria) and Hermann von Helmholtz (Germany).
__________________________________________________________7. MEDIA ALERT
A. "Is a Single Brain Cell Smart Enough to Recognize Your Face?" by John
Horgan (Discover magazine, June, 2005).
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/jelly.html
and
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/sting.html
_________________________________________________________8. THE TREASURE TROVE OF BRAIN TRIVIA
A. Sleepwalking affects 2-14% of all children and 1.6-2.5% of all adults.
(Reference: Guilleminault, C., et al., Adult chronic sleepwalking and its
treatment based on polysomnography, Brain, 128:1062-1069, 2005.)
_________________________________________________________9. SUPPORT NEUROSCIENCE FOR KIDS
To insure that Neuroscience for Kids stays available, we need your help.
If you would like to contribute to the funding of Neuroscience for Kids,
please visit:
_________________________________________________________10. HOW TO STOP RECEIVING THIS NEWSLETTER
To remove yourself from this mailing list and stop your subscription to
the Neuroscience for Kids Newsletter, send e-mail to Dr. Eric H. 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.
(e-mail: chudler@u.washington.edu)
(URL:
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/neurok.html)
"Neuroscience for Kids" is supported by a Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) from the National Center of Research Resources.