NEUROSCIENCE FOR KIDS NEWSLETTER
Volume 14, Issue 1 (January, 2010)

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HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM NEUROSCIENCE FOR KIDS!
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Welcome to the Neuroscience for Kids Newsletter.

Here is what you will find in this issue:

1. What's New at Neuroscience for Kids
2. Neuroscience for Kids Site of the Month
3. 2010 Brain Awareness Week
4. Neuroscience for Kids Writing Contest
5. Summer Research Opportunity for High School Students
6. Media Alert
7. Treasure Trove of Brain Trivia
8. Support Neuroscience for Kids
9. How to Stop Your Subscription
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1. WHAT'S NEW AT NEUROSCIENCE FOR KIDS

Neuroscience for Kids had several new additions in December including:

A. December Neuroscience for Kids Newsletter was archived
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/news1312.html
B. Asian Carp Killed with Rotenone
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/carp.html
C. Hammerhead Shark Eyes: Better to See You With!
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/hammerh.html
D. New Rules for NFL Players with Concussions
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/nflc.html
E. Deck the Halls with...Helmets?
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/dhelmets.html
F. Rise in Autism
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/newaut.html
G. Common Myths about Epilepsy
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/epicom.html
H. New 2010 Neurocalendars (February, March and April)
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/pdf/feb10.pdf
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/pdf/mar10.pdf
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/pdf/apr10.pdf
I. 2010 Brainy Wall Calendar
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/pdf/yr2010.pdf

In December, 14 new figures were added and 29 pages were modified.
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2. NEUROSCIENCE FOR KIDS "SITE OF THE MONTH"

The Neuroscience for Kids "Site of the Month" for January is "How Memory Works" at:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/0407/02.html

"How Memory Works" is great multimedia resource created by the Public Broadcasting System NOVA scienceNOW program. The show aired originally on August 25, 2009, but you can still watch portions of the program online. The main video describes the work being done on the brain of "H.M.," a man who had brain surgery that left him unable to form long-term memories. Another video demonstrates how the sea snail is used to investigate how memories are formed. The web site also has interviews with neuroscientists who study memory including a fascinating interview with Dr. Suzanne Corkin, a researcher who studied H.M. To learn more about Dr. Corkin's work, visit the Behavioral Neuroscience Laboratory at:

http://web.mit.edu/bnl/
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3. 2010 BRAIN AWARENESS WEEK

Brain Awareness Week (BAW) will be here soon! The official week for BAW is March 15-21, 2010, but anytime is a great time to celebrate the brain. BAW was established in the late 1990s by the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives and the Society for Neuroscience. BAW is now an international event with people all over the globe planning activities to spotlight the brain. For more information about BAW, please visit the Dana Alliance and Society for Neuroscience web sites at:

http://www.dana.org/brainweek/

and

http://www.sfn.org/BAW/

I strongly encourage you to participate in BAW. Your BAW activities do not have to be complicated. Perhaps your class can develop a "Brain Fair" for other students, parents and teachers. There may be neuroscientists who can visit your class with a presentation about the brain. BAW is a time when many neuroscientists are looking for classes to visit. The Society for Neuroscience maintains a list of neuroscientists interested in K-12 education outreach.
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4. NEUROSCIENCE FOR KIDS WRITING CONTEST - NOW OPEN

The 2010 NEUROSCIENCE FOR KIDS POETRY WRITING CONTEST is now open to students in kindergarten through high school. Use your imagination to create a poem, limerick or haiku about the brain and you might win a prize. The complete set of rules and the official entry form for the contest are available at:

http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/contest10.html

Entries must be received by February 1, 2010!
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5. SUMMER RESEARCH OPPORTUNITY FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

If you are a high school student interested in research, now is the time to apply for a summer internship. The National Institutes of Health offers research internships where you can get paid for your work in a lab. For more information about this program, see:

http://www.training.nih.gov/student/sip/info.asp
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6. MEDIA ALERT

A. "Neural Interfaces" by Warren Grill (American Scientist, January - February, 2010) discusses how engineered devices are being used to communicate with the nervous system (neuroengineering).

B. The field of neuroengineering is also the cover story ("Merging Man and Machine" by Josh Fischman) in the January 2010 issue of National Geographic magazine. The article is online at:

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/01/bionics/fischman-text

C. The January 2010 issue of Scientific American MIND magazine is on newsstands now.

D. "In Search of Memory" is a film about Nobel-prize winning neuroscientist Eric Kandel. The film will be shown January 8-January 14 at the IFC Center in New York City. For more information about the film, see:

http://www.ifccenter.com/films/in-search-of-memory/

and

http://icarusfilms.com/new2009/mem.html

E. "Phineas Gage: Neuroscience's Most Famous Patient" By Steve Twomey (Smithsonian magazine, January 2010).
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7. THE TREASURE TROVE OF BRAIN TRIVIA

A. Grammy Award winner Tionne Watkins (T-Boz) of the 1990s singing group TLC had surgery in 2006 to remove a brain tumor. (Source: Herndon, J., Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins fighting to stay alive, People magazine, October 12, 2009)

B. You can walk on a street named Brain Road in the cities of Kings Mountain (North Carolina, USA), Donnelly River (Western Australia, Australia), Witham (England), Moolerr (Victoria, Australia) and Harare (Zimbabwe).

C. As many as 5.3 million people in the United States are living with Alzheimer's disease. (Source: http://www.actionalz.org/facts_figures.asp)

D. Kim Peek, the man with an incredible memory who inspired the 1988 film Rain Man starring Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise, died after a heart attack on December 19, 2009. An MRI scan performed on Mr. Peek in 1988 revealed that his brain had a malformed cerebellum and was missing the corpus callosum (the large band of nerve fibers that connect the right and left cerebral hemispheres). (Source: Treffert, D.A. and Christensen, D.D., Inside the mind of a savant, Scientific American, December, 2005)

E. Saint Lucy, also known as Saint Lucia or Saint Lukia, is the patron saint of the blind. (Source: Dhillon, N., Dua, H.S., and Singh, A.D., Br J Ophthalmol 93:1275, 2009)
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8. SUPPORT NEUROSCIENCE FOR KIDS

To ensure 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:

Help Neuroscience for Kids
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9. 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)