brain-awareness-week

Brain Aware­ness Week 2022 just started!

Let’s cel­e­brate our human brains by learn­ing more about neu­ro­science pio­neer San­ti­a­go Ramón y Cajal via a great new book about his life and by chal­leng­ing our minds with a few fun brain teasers and illu­sions below ?

First, some fas­ci­nat­ing insights into the “father of mod­ern neu­ro­science” from a superb book review:

It was dur­ing a trip to Madrid for his exams that Cajal vis­it­ed a lab where he learned how to look at cells under a micro­scope. He fell in love. He had dreamed of explor­ing new worlds, Mr. Ehrlich tells us, “and he thought of micro­scop­ic anatomists as ‘Colum­bus­es.’ ” His ship was launched. Cajal spent hours alone, star­ing at cells and sketching.

Spain played a unique role in Cajal’s discoveries—that is, in the pro­gres­sion of neu­ro­science. The coun­try was not a hotbed of sci­en­tif­ic research. Lack­ing men­tors, Cajal near­ly aban­doned his efforts. But work­ing inde­pen­dent­ly may have forged his auton­o­my and freed him from the influ­ence of tra­di­tion­al the­o­ries. He also longed to dis­prove the stereo­types about Spain. “One could admit that Spain pro­duces some genius artist, such as a long-haired poet or ges­tic­u­lat­ing dancer of either sex,” Cajal lat­er wrote, “but the idea that a true man of sci­ence would emerge from there was con­sid­ered absurd.”

And here’s a selec­tion of five stim­u­lat­ing brain teasers that read­ers enjoyed the most so far in 2022:

1. Where’s the baby?
2. Please com­plete these proverbs to exer­cise your brain in famil­iar and nov­el ways
3. Want to test your stress level?
4. Which way is the bus head­ing?
5. Can you con­nect these pairs of words?

About Brain Awareness Week:

Every March, Brain Aware­ness Week (BAW) unites the efforts of part­ner orga­ni­za­tions world­wide in a cel­e­bra­tion of the brain for peo­ple of all ages. Activ­i­ties are lim­it­ed only by the orga­niz­ers’ imag­i­na­tions and include open days at neu­ro­science labs; exhi­bi­tions about the brain; lec­tures on brain-relat­ed top­ics; social media cam­paigns; dis­plays at libraries and com­mu­ni­ty cen­ters; class­room work­shops; and more. This year BAW takes place March 14–20th, 2022.