DavidH's blog

Ever heard of an action potential (Clue: It has little to do with the likelihood that a person will become the next Bruce Willis)? On Saturday, January 28th, 2012, 15 teens from across the Saint Louis area gathered at the Saint Louis Science Center's Taylor Building for a competition called the Brain Bee to see who knew the most stuff about neuroscience.

Senior Nathan Nguyen from John Burroughs won the competition after a top-ten finish on his written exam and a victory in the oral exam.

Some pictures are already up for the event on Flickr, and look out for a full photo story on SciJourner.org!

The Brain Bee Champs:

Did you know that scientists and artists collaborate frequently to design scientific models, illustrate scientific findings, and even to create visual representations of astronomic data collected from hundreds and thousands of light years away! Check out this CNN article with an enhanced photo of the Helix Nebula: A beautiful synergy of art and science. Helix Nebula

Recently, a group from Georgia began running ads to raise awareness of the realities and risks of childhood obesity. This ad campaign was organized in response to a series of surveys that found that most Georgia parents of obese children didn't realize their kids had a weight problem, or even think that childhood obesity was a serious problem, among other troubling findings. So it seems right that a group of people should seek to raise awareness about the issue, right? But it's the ad campaign's frank, in-your-face methods that have been called into question. Check out this article to learn more, and think about it for yourself- where do you draw the line when you're fighting to stop childhood obesity?

Check out the following link to view the latest SciJourner story about a local NASA Mission Specialist who flew on the final shuttle mission! Astronaut Sandra Magnus visits SciFest 2011

Today at the Saint Louis Science Center's monthly Community Partner's meeting, Taryn and Daunte led a really engaging activity to introduce us to the human brain. Two specific regions of the brain we learned about are the Wernicke's Area and the Broca's Area. Respectively, these areas of the brain control speech/language comprehension (how you make sense of what other people say), and speech/language production (how you speak and write coherently). This got me to thinking- what would life be like with significant damage to one of these areas? I thought about not being able to understand things my wife says to me due to a damaged Wernicke's region, or not being able to communicate how I feel or what I think about something to her with a damaged Broca's region... What a devastating condition! So this made me wonder what organizations, technologies, and treatments are available to help people with damage to these regions of the brain. This is the one helpful website I was able to find during my brief search. You can read about one particular disease that affects Wernicke's area at the hyperlink below, and at the bottom of the page there are multiple resources available

There's no scientific data to support the Mayan prophecy that the earth will be destroyed by an asteroid next year, but here's one coming soon that will pass between the earth and the moon! http://lightyears.blogs.cnn.com/2011/11/03/asteroid-to-pass-closer-to-earth-than-the-moon/

Steve Jobs died last night after a long struggle with pancreatic cancer. This man has an amazing story- the adopted child of a California machinist, he grew up in the midst of the cultural turmoil of 1960's California, dropped out of Reed College after one semester (you should google Reed College if you haven't heard of it), cofounded Apple with his buddy Steve Wosniak, and helped found Pixar Animation Studios. This one man changed the way regular folks interact with technology in computers, animated films, music, books, photography, video, and the list goes on! So what can you learn from a guy like Jobs? Well, for one, you should read more about him to find out. Check out the New York Times or CNN articles about him, and be on the lookout for his authorized biography by Walter Isaacson that's coming out October 24th. But first, remember that he started out as an ordinary guy. What's more he was a college dropout. Now, I'm not encouraging anyone to drop out of college. It's a generally bad idea. But who would've thought that an 18-19 year old college dropout would have accomplished all that he did in the next 40 years? Just think what you could accomplish in the next 40 years! It's an exciting thought if you ask me...