July 14

#TriggerWarning: Life After Trauma

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At 2:09 am on June 12, 2016, Pulse had a message for its patrons: It’s only eight words, but it gives me chills whenever I read it. Have you ever been anywhere and found yourself with that imperative? Run. Keep running. Or you may die. The shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando claimed the […]

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July 07

Just Keep Remembering (and Forgetting)

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[En español] “I suffer from short-term memory loss. It runs in my family… At least I think it does… hm. Where are they?” Thirteen years ago, a little blue fish with a memory problem became one of the most lovable animated characters of all time. In Finding Nemo, Dory (voiced by Ellen Degeneres) constantly forgets […]

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June 30

Reflections on #SciComm Boot Camp

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Communicate. It is part of the scientific process, and yet scientists are notoriously terrible at distilling their work into an understandable form.

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June 23

Brain origami

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[En español] Origami (from Japanese words “ori” meaning to fold and “kami” meaning paper) is the art of paper folding. A brain and a sheet of office paper don’t seem to have much in common, but when you crumple up the sheet into a paper ball you are holding the key to one of the mysteries […]

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June 17

Why Do You #SciComm?

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[En español] One of the best parts about being a part of NeuWriteSD is the diversity of interests and backgrounds of our members. We all love the brain and want to share that love with others, but our reasons for being here are as different as we are. So we asked our members the question: […]

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June 09

Forget About It

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[En español] In the midst of studying for finals, forgetting is the enemy. You can easily remember the lyrics to your favorite 90s hit, but the names of the 12 cranial nerves elude you. We often think about forgetting as something pathological. We become frustrated by that all too familiar tip-of-your-tongue feeling and in extreme […]

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June 02

Your Brain on Thirsty Thursday

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Alcohol: loss of motor coordination, a sense of invincibility, amplified emotions, loss of inhibition, hazy memory, blackout. What kind of crazy things are happening in the brain?! How does alcohol even get into the brain?!

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May 26

Happiness comes from within

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[En español] ‘Folks are usually about as happy as they make up their minds to be’ – Abraham Lincoln. Happiness comes from within. More specifically, from the brain. Surely I am biased when I say the nervous system is incredibly interesting, but I am not the only one who thinks this. The public’s fascination with the brain most likely […]

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May 20

For the love of dog!

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Think about your favorite pet (maybe it belongs to you…or your roommate in my case). What does it look like? Where is its favorite spot to hang out? When was the last time you played with it? Now think about the same things, but about your best (human) friend. You might experience similar feelings of […]

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May 12

Sweet, Sweet Fructose

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When a cat licks you (lucky you), have you ever considered licking back? (Some have.) If you have, and did, you would have noticed that cats do not taste sweet. Nevertheless, phrases such as “sweet kittens” and “sweet deals”, alongside terms like “sweetheart”, pervade the modern English language; “sweet”, like “nice”, “awesome”, and “cool”, has […]

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