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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 June including:
A. June Neuroscience for Kids Newsletter was archived
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/news2806.html
B. New Neuroscience in the News
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/inthenews.html
C. 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 July is "The Transmitter" at:
https://www.thetransmitter.org
The Transmitter is produced by Spectrum magazine and was first published in November 2023. Articles cover a wide range of topics about new neuroscientific discoveries and tools. For such a young resource, The Transmitter has an extensive collection of essays, videos and interviews to explore.
Navigating around The Transmitter is fairly easy: just click on the icon with three horizontal lines at the top right side of the landing page to open a menu with choices of topics (for example, brain imaging) or article type (for example, news, interviews, podcasts). Select a choice and pages will be displayed arranged with the most recent entry presented first. I found the "Profiles" and "Beyond the Bench" sections especially interesting because they discuss not only a person’s scientific achievements, but also their life outside the lab.
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The International Neuroethics Society and the International Youth Neuroscience Association are sponsoring a Neuroethics Essay Contest for high school students, secondary school students, post-secondary student, and postdoctoral fellows. Essays can cover any field of neuroethics where neuroscience intersects with society (for example, law, medicine, philosophy and psychology). Winners will receive cash prizes. The deadline for submissions is July 5, 2024, 11:30 p.m. EDT. More details and the submission entry portal:
https://neuroethicsessaycontest.com/call/
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In many places, the recent arrival of summer has brought with it swarms of blood-sucking mosquitoes. But if you want to avoid these pesky insects, researchers from the University of Washington have an idea for you. Dr. Jeffrey Riffell in the Department of Biology at the University of Washington studies how mosquitoes find food. Dr. Riffell has found that mosquitoes follow the smells of sweat from our skin and carbon dioxide from our breath. Mosquitoes also seem to like red and black colors, but they dislike green and white colors.
So, perhaps before heading out to your next picnic or barbeque, put on a white or green shirt: it’s easier than holding your breath and stopping your sweat.
Video with Dr. Jeffrey Riffell and his research: https://youtu.be/fcyP4mU9JCo?si=YCa3ic7PqsTz_ebU
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A. "Mapping the Darkness Excerpt: Sleep Spelunking" (DISCOVER magazine, July/August 2024).
B. "Ozempic Quiets Food Noise in the Brain—But How?" and "Advanced Meditation Alters Consciousness and Our Basic Sense of Self" (SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN magazine, July 2024).
C. "The Many Lives of Scientific Literacy" (ANERICAN SCIENTIST magazine, July/August 2024).
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A. The 2024 Kavli Prize in Neuroscience with its $1 million award was given to Nancy Kanwisher, Winrich Freiwald and Doris Ying Tsao "for the discovery of a highly localized and specialized system for representation of faces in human and non-human primate neocortex" (Source: https://www.kavliprize.org/prizes/neuroscience/2024).
B. Birdwatching can reduce psychological distress and increase psychological well-being in college students (Source: Peterson, M.N., et al., Birdwatching linked to increased psychological well-being on college campuses: A pilot-scale experimental study, J. Environ. Psych., Volume 96, 2024, 102306, ISSN 0272-4944).
C. Approximately one in six teen drivers report that they have driven a motor vehicle while they were so tired it was hard keeping their eyes open (Source: Dzierzewski, J., et al., Population-based estimates of drowsy driving among US teens: A National Sleep Foundation Study, Sleep, 2024; 47 (Supplement_1): A72 DOI: 10.1093/sleep/zsae067.0166).
D. African elephants may have names for each other (Source: Pardo, M.A., et al., African elephants address one another with individually specific name-like calls, Nat. Ecol. Evol. (2024), https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-024-02420-w).
E. "Sleep deprivation is the most common brain impairment." (Source: quote from William C. Dement in his book, The Promise of Sleep, 1999, p. 231).
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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.