We’re in California!
We spent two days driving 1000+ miles south over mountain passes and deserts to palm trees and sun, to join enthusiastic outreach volunteers at the annual Society for Neuroscience (SfN) conference! Huge thanks to Jill and Michael in Grants Pass, Oregon and Theresa and Billy in Pleasanton, California for opening their homes to weary travelers on their way to San Diego.
We began our day with a long walk to the 2.6 million square foot San Diego Convention Center, to pick up our official badges. Last time we did this was 2018!
LEARN MORE: Synapsing in San Diego @ SfN!
LEARN MORE: Northwest Noggin @ SfN
Then it was off to 725 West Broadway, home of The Brain Observatory, an incredible repository of neuroscience research and art founded by Dr. Jacobo Annese, the neuroscientist who dissected the brain of famous amnesia Patient H.M. (Henry Molaison).
LEARN MORE: Remembering the Man Who Couldn’t Remember
LEARN MORE: The Curious Case of Patient H.M.
LEARN MORE: Classic and recent advances in understanding amnesia
Look at the art!
We set up our own tables of noggin specimens and gorgeous neuro-art, including a stunning beaded neuron crafted by Oregon artist Theresa Smith, the Siletz Culture Teacher at the Siletz Valley School.
We also presented rod and cone photoreceptors, made by former student and metal artist Darrin Lane!
We were joined by a wonderful experienced cadre of expert, enthusiastic volunteers, including Ben Bolen, Dan Jang, Bee Conn, Bradley Marxmiller and Savannah Gipson from the Neuroscience Club at Portland State University and Denesa Lockwood and Randall Olson from OHSU.
We also re-connected with the amazing Monique Smith, who we’ve know since her graduate student days in Behavioral Neuroscience at OHSU! Monique presented her extraordinary research on the social transmission of pain in a public art-infused Noggin presentation at Velo Cult in Portland many years ago.
LEARN MORE: I Feel Your Pain @ Velo!
LEARN MORE: Anterior cingulate inputs to nucleus accumbens control the social transfer of pain and analgesia
Monique is now a new Principal Investigator in Neuroscience at the University of California San Diego, and brought along some accomplished students of hers from the University of San Diego! Julia Johnson, Cali Boustani, Egemen Tangun, Katarina Matic, Erin Jones and Christiana Torres joined us to bend pipe cleaners, answer questions, examine cerebral specimens and press gel prints of brain cells!
MAKE YOUR OWN PRINTS: Brain Cell Gel Prints
We enjoyed a bright sunny morning at The Brain Observatory, as streams of people passed through. It was a funny experience in some ways. From Randall Olson, a graduate student at OHSU: “I’m used to using accessible language when presenting brains and answering questions – but some of these visitors were presenting pretty complex and specific research at SfN!”
Brain Awareness
At noon we packed up our traveling noggins, grabbed lunch and moved our overflowing Brain Cart to the Convention Center. SfN had scheduled us for two poster presentations in two widely separated locations at the same time, so our Neuro Club undergrads kindly tacked up our Theme J poster on the main floor while we headed to the Dana Foundation sponsored Brain Awareness Campaign Event!
Lisa Chiu, the Managing Editor for BrainFacts.org and Director of Neuroscience Literacy at SfN, had secured us extra poster space and a rare, coveted table, which we quickly covered with Noggin swag.
For the next two hours we heard from many, many fantastic fellow presenters and visitors who are doing extraordinary outreach work! We learned about innovative programs with an undergraduate focus, a focus on K-12, a focus on incarcerated individuals, and more.
Many people told us they were inspired by our own work through Northwest Noggin.
Our PSU undergraduates also presented posters on outreach and interdisciplinary neuroscience.
We also enjoyed a compelling and inspiring keynote address by Dr. Leigh Wilson and Dr. Asma Bashir, two powerful speakers who argued forcefully for more inclusive community outreach and engagement from neuroscientists – definitely the approach we wholeheartedly (and “wholebrainedly”) endorse!
Dr. Bashir is an exceptional science communicator with a popular podcast (Her Royal Science), and we know the enthusiastic scicomm phenomenon Leigh extremely well from past SfN conferences, and from an earlier invited talk we gave last spring at Kings College London!
LEARN MORE: Lobes in London
“If neuroscientists are reluctant to let their graduate students leave the lab to meet the public, then I have to ask – who is their research really for? And for me, personally, I’d want to be out of that lab.”
— Dr. Asma Bashir
Back to The Brain
Energized from an afternoon with fellow teaching and outreach enthusiasts, we returned to The Brain Observatory for an evening of more brains and art!
Crowds of people joined us in Dr. Aleppo’s stunning laboratory gallery, with his Italian marble-topped research tables now strewn with pipe cleaner Meissner’s corpuscles, astrocytes and Purkinje cells!
We filled his lab fridge with real brains, 3D printed brains and crafted inner hair cells.
We are utterly inspired by Dr. Aleppo’s vision of an accessible research space offering free public education, research initiatives and art. Something like The Brain Observatory would be a terrific and compelling resource in Portland, Oregon, and many other places too. Jacobo, Leigh and Asma have us imagining a place that does not yet exist, one that welcomes and encourages everyone to engage, make art and learn about our remarkable brains and behavior, without charging admission or tuition.
Of course for the moment we’ll continue our own free, all volunteer public outreach through art making and visits to houseless youth nonprofits, correctional facilities and K-12 schools – including visits this week to Webster and Freese Elementary in San Diego Unified Public Schools.
LEARN MORE: Noggins @ SfN & San Diego Unified Public Schools
WE DID IT: Brains Beyond SfN
