____________________________________________________________
Welcome to the Neuroscience for Kids Newsletter.
In this issue:
____________________________________________________________
Neuroscience for Kids had several new additions in May including:
A. May Neuroscience for Kids Newsletter was archived
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/news2205.html
B. Neuroscience in the News
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/inthenews.html
The Neuroscience for Kids "Site of the Month" for June is "Rita Levi-Montalcini: a pioneer in neuroscience at:
http://www.dana.org/uploadedFiles/Pdfs/Motalcini-Graphic-Novel-English.pdf
"Rita Levi-Montalcini: a pioneer in neuroscience" is a short, online graphic novel by Manfredi Toraldo and Fransceso Mobili about the life of Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientist Dr. Rita Levi-Montalcini (born April 22, 1909; died December 30, 2012). The story describes the many challenges faced by Dr. Levi-Montalcini as she pursued the research that eventually won her a Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1986 for her work on nerve growth factor.
__________________________________________________________
The Society for Neuroscience is now accepting entries to its Brain Awareness Video Contest. Your video could be an animation, song, or skit about neuroscience. Entries are due by 5 pm (EST) on June 14, 2018, so there is not much time left. The contest rules and guidelines are available at:
http://www.brainfacts.org/for-educators/programs-and-events/brain-awareness-video-contest
__________________________________________________________Last month, I was invited to Page 2 Books (Burien, WA) to sign copies of my new book "Brain Lab for Kids." I've never worked in a store before, but I felt a bit like a salesman during my brief one-hour visit. The owner of the book store set up a small table for me at the front of the store by the entrance door. The table had a stack of books ready for me to sign for people who purchased a copy.
To attract the attention of people in the store, I brought a plastic brain model and some small neuroscience activities (blind spot tests, Benham's disks, visual illusions) that I placed on the table. It wasn't long before people came over to ask about the items on my table. I guided people through the different activities and mentioned that my book had many more things they could do to learn about their brains.
I signed about four books for people while I was at the store and signed about 25 more copies for the store to sell later. Although I enjoyed my time at the bookstore, I'll keep my job as a neuroscientist.
__________________________________________________________
A. "Was Science Wrong About Being Right?" by Gemma Tarlach (DISCOVER MAGAZINE, June, 2018).
B. "Sorry, Mom and Dad, Toys Cannot Supercharge Your Baby" by Erik Vance (SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, June, 2018)
C. "What is Consciousness?" by Christof Koch (SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, June, 2018).
D. "How Much Can We Know" by Marcelo Gleiser (SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, June, 2018).
__________________________________________________________
A. New research shows that maintaining five healthy lifestyle factors can increase a person's lifespan by 10 years or longer. These factors are: 1) maintaining a healthy diet; 2) not smoking; 3) getting at least 3.5 hours/week of moderate to vigorous physical exercise; 4) drinking only moderate amounts of alcohol; and 5) maintaining a normal weight. (Source: Li et al., Impact of Healthy Lifestyle Factors on Life Expectancies in the US Population, 2018 Apr 30. pii: CIRCULATIONAHA.117.032047. doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.117.032047. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 29712712.)
B. The total length of capillaries in the human brain is approximately 400 miles. (Source: Cipolla, M.J., The Cerebral Circulation, San Rafael, CA: Morgan & Claypool Life Sciences, 2009.)
C. The largest vertebra (backbone) ever discovered was 1.4 m (4 ft., 7 in.) long; this bone belonged to a sauropod dinosaur. (Source: Wedel, M. J. and Cifelli, R. L., Sauroposeidon: Oklahoma's native giant. Oklahoma Geology Notes 65: 40-57, 2005.)
D. 68.8% of high school students in the United States do not get enough sleep (less than or equal to 7 hours) on school nights. (Source: Wheaton, A.G., Olsen, E.O., Miller, G.F., Croft, J.B., Sleep duration and injury-related risk behaviors among high school students - United States, 2007-2013. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2016;65:337-341. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6513a1.)
E. In the United States, the number of reported cases of disease transmitted to humans by mosquitoes, ticks and fleas tripled from 2004 to 2016. Mosquitoes and ticks can transmit illnesses that affect the nervous system such as Lyme disease, encephalitis, and Zika virus. (Source: CDC Vital Signs, May, 2018, https://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/pdf/vs-0518-vector-borne-H.pdf.)
_________________________________________________________
Help Neuroscience for Kids
_________________________________________________________
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)