Sometimes it's just gotta be about Science: Museum of Natural History Brain Exhibit!

I'm back! Well I hope I'm back. Working has really gotten in the way of my wandering and my writing (mainly my writing, I still wander). You have missed out on some good stuff :/ but hopefully at some point I'll go back into my notes and my photos and tell you about some of the things I've done in the last errr two months? Eeps. I'm gonna try to be better.

So last last weekend I finally hitup the museum exhibit I've been excited for since October: The Natural History Museum's BRAIN exhibit: The Inside Story. This exhibit takes you through the ins and outs of the brain, first going through our senses, how we process touch, sound, sight, next onto our emotions and how they come about, how we process information, how we move, a whole super cool section on language, and tons more. It's definitely information overload, but what museum isn't? And every individual will take away their own fun facts to share with others. I wrote a few down myself to share :) 

I know I'm a bit of a science nerd so it's not surprising that I enjoyed this exhibit so much, but really they break everything down into small chunks of info that are easy to understand...I mean they cater to people of all ages, so you can really just delve into whatever layer suits you. The font sizes on each of the displays get smaller the more detail they get into, so you can really just pick your size and go with it! Definitely towards the end when my brain and my feet were aching a bit, I started to skip over the small font. It happens. Museums are tiring! 

When you walk into the exhibit they blast you with a crazy visual, it's like a laser light show that's supposed to simulate all the neurons in your brain doing a million things at once. It was cool I guess...but really it was just a bunch of wires and a light show that I'm pretty sure is designed to get oohs and ahhs and slow people down so the actual exhibit doesn't get too crowded.

This is just an example of one of the
giant models they have on display
(The Inside of the Brain)

Once you actually get in they have this great overview video that follows a girl going through a dance audition (I know...why did they pick this? It seems random, but it works). They talk about her movements, senses, and emotions. And all the while next to the screen they have a giant brain model that highlights different parts of the brain when they are in use by the girl. It's a nice intro before you get into the detailed stuff.

I won't really go into much detail, except to tell you about some of the cool fun facts that I picked up while I was there. Hopefully it'll give you enough of a taste to get you interested in going. I really really recommend it for a fun intellectual day.

What do drugs really do? Part of the exhibit focused on drugs/medicines and what goes on in the brain to cause certain reactions. They basically explain that in your brain different chemicals are produced that stimulate your body in different ways (like that whole bit everyone always talks about  how exercise releases endorphins and that makes you happy and gives you energy etc etc.)...and so drugs just basically cause chemicals to be released or inhibited. So they gave another example that I thought was relevant to probably everyone I know -- coffee. Coffee, as we know, contains caffeine (arguably a "drug") and we all know that caffeine makes you less tired...but why? Welllll it's because caffeine blocks the natural neurotransmitter adenosine (just want to make a sidenote to people who know what I'm talking about...seeing the word adenosine totally brought us to yell "ATP!" in seconds) -- anyway so adenosine triggers receptors that make you sleepy...so since caffeine blocks adenosine, it essentially blocks sleepiness and keeps you awake. I thought that was kinda cool to learn...that caffeine doesn't actually give you energy, it just inhibits tiredness. Same effect...different route! 

Mixing up our senses? We also learned about Synethesia, a "condition in which stimulation of one sensory pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences with a second sensory pathway." A common form of synesthesia causes people to literally see different numbers or letters as different colors...like this image to the right: 

Can you imagine that?

In fact, although this condition is not super common, some researchers say many have a mild version of synethesia based on the fact that we often do associate "sights, sounds and other sensations that have simliar qualities" -- the example they gave was: imagine you were given two shapes, one rounded and one pointed and were told one is called "kiki" and the other is called "booba" and you have to figure out which is which. Most people think "kiki", with its sharp sound is a better name for the pointy figure and "booba" a soft, round-sounding word (like boob? yea I thought this was a little obvious) makes more sense for the rounded shape. Think about that. There are a lot of other forms of synesthesia that are really interesting also, so checkout the wikipedia page for more detail (or just checkout the exhibit!!):  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia

Most sensitive parts of the body: The section on senses was definitely one of the more interesting ones since it involves the most basic part of everyday life. Early on in the exhibit we learned about sensory receptors and how, when stimulated, they send messages to the touch center of the brain, causing us to have the appropriate reaction...basically so we know when something feels smooth or rough, hot or cold, etc. So there was a wacky statue of a man and his face and hands were blown up bigger than the rest of him and next to it it said that the bodyparts were englarged based upon how many sensory receptors were concentrated in that body part, which basically is directly related to how sensitive the different parts of our body are.  For instance the thumb has more sensory receptors than the index finger so the thumb was bigger on the statue and it is more sensitive to sensations than the index finger.  So, although alllll body parts were not depicted in the statue, they were listed in a chart nearby, comparing the concentration of these receptors on different parts of the body. And just by chance I happened to notice, it turns out that the lips  actually have a higher concentration of sensory receptors than the genitalia...aka they are technically more sensitive to touch. Did ya know that? In the words of Bill Nye the Science Guy, Nowwwww you knowwww. Just a little fun fact to share with your friends. :) PS--this would be one of those things that's in verrrry small font next to the other, more child-friendly and probably more useful, largely written fun facts.

And here's one of the very helpful visuals on what parts of the brain control what:

CLICK TO ENLARGE

That rounds out my fun facts, but here are some other little tips if you're thinking of hitting up the AMNH. When you get there...do not be overwhelmed by all the idiot tourists who are waiting on the long line to buy their tickets from a human. There is always a super short electronic kiosk line to the left when you walk in and you can also choose to get a student ticket and no one will know that you graduated 2 years ago :-O Yea I did it, I scammed the museum out of 8 dollars. And I feel ok about it. Just consider it your refund from the city for having to pay the new ridiculous raised price for monthly metrocards. 

Oh and one more last tip...more like a morsel of information. The D train is an EXPRESS. You WILL end up in Harlem if you get on this train. Take the B or C and all will be peachy. 

Hope this post made sense...was accurate (I tried my best!)...and got some people interested in checking out the exhibit. There is really so much cool stuff to learn and everyone can take away as much or as little as they want. Do ittttttttttttt.

Peace out! Hopefully I'll be able to post again soon!