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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 January including:
A. January Neuroscience for Kids Newsletter was archived
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/news3001.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 February is "Is This Legit? Accessing Valid and Reliable Health Information" at:
The ability to tell the difference between fact and fiction is especially important when it comes to your health. This is a critical skill for everyone. But where can you learn this skill? Look no further than this month's Site of the Month from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and their lesson plan for high school students. The lesson was created to help students find and use reputable health resources and describe how this information influences their behavior. The NIDA designed the lesson so teachers can use the resource in class or virtually.
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Several people contacted me recently to ask what Brain Awareness Week (BAW) is all about. I replied that BAW was started by the Dana Foundation and the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives in 1996. The event is now celebrated around the world with efforts to help people better understand the brain and brain research. Read more about the history of BAW here:
https://dana.org/article/three-decades-of-brain-awareness/
Anyone can participate in BAW. Students, teachers, schools, scientists, hospitals, libraries and other organizations can organize activities to share their passion and knowledge about the brain. Activities do not have to be complicated or complex and do not require a lot of money. The Dana Foundation (https://dana.org/brain-awareness-week/) has many ideas and resources for people who want to get involved.
I encourage everyone to join BAW! This year, the official week for BAW is March 16-22, 2026.
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When I first started college, I thought that I would become a marine biologist. It was not until my third year of college that I decided to focus on neuroscience. A few years later, during my early career as a neuroscientist, I thought about studying sleep. I even had a job interview at Stanford University where some of the best sleep research in the world is taking place. Although I decided to focus on a different research area, sleep and marine biology still interest me. That is why I was so fascinated with a new research study that described how jellyfish sleep.
In the new research, scientists observed that the upside-down jellyfish (Cassiopea andromeda) and starlet sea anemone (Nematostella vectensis) sleep about 8 hours each day. The jellyfish even took naps! Although the researchers are not sure why these animals sleep, it is possible that sleep evolved to repair tissue damage that happens when the jellyfish and anemones are awake.
Reference: Aguillon, R. et al., DNA damage modulates sleep drive in basal cnidarians with divergent chronotypes, Nat. Comm., 17, 3 (2026), https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-67400-5.
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Are you a middle school student with an idea to make the world a better place? If so, you could win a cash prize in the 3M Young Scientist Challenge. Students need to submit a short video about their idea to enter the contest. Projects must focus on one of six topics: robotics, home improvement, automotive, safety, AR/VR (augmented reality/virtual reality) or climate tech. I can think of several neuroscience-related projects that could fit these topics. Can you?
The deadline to enter the challenge is April 30, 2026, so now is the time to get started. For challenge rules and the entry form, see:
https://youngscientistlab.com/annual-challenge/about-the-challenge
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A. SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN (February, 2026) has two articles about consciousness: "Why Consciousness is the Hardest Problem in Science" and "Your Guide to 29 Wildly Different Theories of Consciousness."
B. "Into the Kingdom of Seahorses" (NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, February, 2026).
C. "Why Do We Cry?" (IFLSCIENCE, January, 2026).
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A. Pigeons (Columba livia) can detect the Earth's magnetic field and likely use this ability to navigate their environment (Source: Nordmann, G.C. et al., A global screen for magnetically induced neuronal activity in the pigeon brain, Science 0, eaea6425DOI: 10.1126/science.aea6425).
B. An artificial tongue able to rate the spiciness of food has been invented (Source: Deng, W. et al., A soft and flexible artificial tongue for pungency perception, ACS Sensors, 10:8331-8341, 2025).
C. Horses can tell the difference between fear and joy based on the smell of human sweat (Source: Jardat, P. et al., Human emotional odours influence horses' behaviour and physiology, 2026, PLoS One 21(1): e0337948. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0337948).
D. The brains of astronauts move and change shape in outer space (Wang, T. et al., Brain displacement and nonlinear deformation following human spaceflight, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 123 (3) e2505682122, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2505682122, 2026).
E. The brain of the common shrew (Sorex araneus) shrinks up to 30% in size from the summer to the winter (Source: Lazaro, J. et al., Geographic patterns in seasonal changes of body mass, skull, and brain size of common shrews, Ecol. Evol., 11:2431–2448, 2021).
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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.