Category Archives: UCSD

September 17

Your brain is plastic!

posted by

Your brain is plastic! It has the remarkable ability to modify its connections and to be rewired as a result of your experiences and the neural activity generated by them. This ability is known as plasticity. Neurons in the central nervous system communicate across synapses, the small gaps between two adjacent neurons that allow the […]

»»
August 27

The Neuwrite Times

posted by

We here at NeuwriteSD have been hard at work creating a print edition of some of our recent articles. This is something we have done in the past to hand out at local science communication and outreach events, and for the first time we are posting a pdf version of The Neuwrite Times online. Huge […]

»»
February 27

Choosing a neuroscience graduate program

posted by

TL;DR talk to current students & trust your instincts

»»
August 23

The Neuroscience of Laughter

posted by

Think back to the last time you had a real, hearty laugh: mouth in a wide smile, eyes crinkled and tearing, breath leaving your body in short bursts if you could get any breath out at all. For humans, there are few more pleasurable experiences or greater expressions of joy as laughter. We use laughter […]

»»
December 12

GOP tax bill would cripple biomedical science and higher education

posted by

Graduate students have it pretty rough. But we knew what we were getting into — being underpaid for several years in the hopes of contributing to an important scientific discovery and eventually getting that PhD. What we didn’t know was that Congress would draft legislation to make our lives even harder. The version of the […]

»»
September 01

Mentors Like Us: Expanding Diversity Research Program Curricula

posted by

STEM diversity initiatives should shift the focus from solely providing resources to also investigating why the vast majority of minority students stray from academia.

»»
February 25

They’re Right In Front Of You

posted by

[En español] The story of the neuroscientist that almost wasn’t and the role of advocacy within neuroscience. // South Central Los Angeles in the 1980s was essentially a war zone. The area had become a hub for crack cocaine dealing, which only worsened the violence from street gangs and pushed the area into deeper poverty and […]

»»
October 31

Interview with a Zombie: Dr. Bradley Voytek and the Neuroscience of Everyone’s Favorite Monster

posted by

‘Tis the season to be spooky – here’s a bonus NeuWrite post in the spirit of the holiday! At last spring’s UCSD Neuroscience Program Retreat, we had the pleasure of hearing new faculty member, Dr. Bradley Voytek, give a talk about Consciousness Deficit Hypoactivity Disorder (CDHD). If the medical term sounds unfamiliar, maybe you know […]

»»
April 16

Hacking the Neuronal Recipe

posted by

  Whether it’s Outback’s Bloomin’ Onion or In-N-Out’s secret sauce, the Internet is awash with bloggers’ attempts to recreate iconic foods.  Regrettably, as the occasional DIY fail can attest, not all reproductions are indistinguishable from the original. But this isn’t the case for neuroscientist Kristin Baldwin. She and her team have successfully decoded one of […]

»»
January 08

“Every Science Story is a Detective Story”

posted by

This week, UCSD, the Kavli Foundation, and the Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind hosted a visit from the amazing actor Alan Alda and fellows from the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science,.  In addition to a public lecture and workshops for senior faculty and selected postdoctoral scholars, Mr. Alda was kind enough to take […]

»»