Snacks4theBrain!

Howdy, ya’ll,

Longtime “nohear.” Yeah, I know, we’ve been hard at work on the new School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt and with end-of-the-year things at my “day job” as Lower School Technology Coordinator at University School of Nashville. Not to mention Spring Break! That’s what I’m talkin’ about!

That said, I hope you’ll enjoy S4theB! episode 55, a quick but very listenable concoction whose main ingredient is my reading of an article by Dr. Alan I. Leshner, Chief Executive Officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and Executive Publisher of Science. Back in January of this year Dr. L. published a moving plea for our institutions of higher education to make outreach to K12 schools (you know those public school systems everyone is always saying are failing our youth?) with science outreach as a mandatory element in the review process for both tenure and promotion. Wow.

I emailed Dr. Leshner for permission to use the article in this podcast and his administrative assistant got back to me with a query about just how I would do so. I replied, well, I’d read it aloud, hopefully sharing it with a portion of the educated citizenry who might not have seen it in Science. She consulted with him and voila, here ’tis.

Dr. Leshner’s piece is framed by some new and very well performed and produced independent music from a husband and wife acoustic duo who reside in Fabriano, Italy. My first Italian independent music! I sincerely hope you’ll like that, and that you’ll visit for a shopping extravaganza to support their efforts to bring talented artists’ music to the public. While you’re there, check out the skimmy on Magnatune. It’s quite a story…

There’s also a TechTipTidbit (courtesy of Worldstart.com via Dr. T. at completelyfreesoftware.com) all about RAM and Virtual Memory in your PC. Don’t know what I’m talkin’ about? You might after giving S4theB! 55 a listen! Listen up, right hear (sic)!

Episode 54 of S4theB! features a fascinating chat with Dr. Pat Levitt (photo courtesy of www.vanderbilt.edu), Director of the Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development. Dr. Levitt is also a member of the Vanderbilt Brain Institute Neuroscience Council and is extraordinarily active in a plethora of professional organizations, including the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives, the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, and the National Advisory Mental Health Council for the National Institute of Mental Health. He is the author of over 170 scientific papers and serves on the editorial boards of several scientific journals that include Biological Psychiatry, Cerebral Cortex, and Neuron.

Pat Levitt, as you can see, is a very busy guy. That’s why I was so pleased to be able to meet with him in his offices on the 4th floor of the John F. Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development. My portable recorder was sadly out of juice so I rigged up my laptop with a headset mic (the explanation for my own comments during the interview sounding like I’m speaking with a tin bucket over my head ), but I have to say the 30 or so minutes we chatted were among the most enjoyable and enlightening I’ve spent in these nearly two years of interviewing some of the most interesting people in science.

Enough chatchat: Download S4theB! Episode 54 here or click the Podcast Pickle player on the links page to hear it right in your browser.

This episode’s music hearkens back to the Podsafe Music Network for its listening-on-the-theme-of-the-brain content. 3 Feet Up’s “Teflon Brain” and audio project The Fabrications’ “Brain Cells” color up the show, and there’s even a TechTipTidbit for you! I lead out by fudging a little with BRAIN BUCKIT’s (well, there’s “brain” in the band’s name!) bluesy “Rocket Science.” All in all, I think it’s a a satisfying Snacks! and I hope you’ll agree!

Links:

• Dr Pat Levitt’s Vanderbilt University Medical Center page
• The Vanderbilt Brain Institute
• BrainsRule.com – a great site for learning about the human brain!
• Spoon-fed Snacks! — Click here for Google results search returns for “Pat Levitt environment genetics blog”