EXPLORIT Science Center - Weekly Column

You're invited to join in celebration of world Astronomy Day, April 8. Your first opportunity will be tonight at the first ever joint meeting of the UC Davis and Explorit Astronomy Clubs. Then tomorrow on Astronomy day, stop by the Davis Farmers’ Market to catch a unique glimpse of the sun.

The clubs will hold their first joint meeting tonight at 9:00 p.m. The meeting will be held at 55 Roessler Hall, UCD. There, you’ll be able to find out what double stars and extrasolar planets are in a talk given by UCD Astronomy Club President Jason Cosman. Also, Glen Erickson and other members of the UCD Club will set up their still-active 1876 museum piece telescope to view the 14% crescent moon.

You’ll have the chance to scope out constellations Leo, Gemini, Ursa Major (the Big Dipper) and Orion using various other telescopes. Dennis Smith, Explorit Astronomy Club host, and members of the UCD Astronomy Club will be on hand to share legends about constellations, along with scientific information, so bring your questions. For more information, call Explorit at 756-0191 or visit http://maxwell.ucdavis.edu/~astro/.

Tomorrow, stop by the Davis Farmers' Market to view the sun! Smith and members of the Explorit Astronomy Club will be setting up a telescope for solar viewing through a filter. While there, you can check out a very BIG telescope—with an 18 1/2 " lens—donated to Explorit in memory of David Graham.

Explorit Spring Vacation Classes, April 17 through 21, are filling quickly! Classes are offered for kindergartners through fifth graders. Your kids can choose from the topics “Bones and All!” “Rain Forest Rhapsody,” and “Color and Chromatography.” For kindergartners only, there’s “Home Sweet Home” and “Science Detectives.” The cost is just $11 per child for members, and $14 per child for non-members. Call Explorit to learn more.

Explorit's current exhibition, "What A Shock! The Human Nervous System," is open through Sunday. This exploration of the human nervous system, including the senses, has had rave reviews.

How does our body send messages from our sense organs, through the spinal cord, to the brain (and sometimes back)? By way of the neurons! We’re born with between 10 and 100 billion of them!

Do we grow new neurons? Unfortunately not. Throughout our lives we have the same number we were born with. While they can grow in size, as a result of use, we cannot make more of them. In this exhibit, you can make your own neuron using cord and beads!

Our brain, spinal cord, and nerves are all made up of neurons or nerve cells. Each neuron has three main parts. The largest area is called the cell body. The "branches," or dendrites, carry the messages to the cell body. The messages then move down the "tail," or axon, which leads to a cluster of branches known as the axonal endings. (Are you still with me?) The axon and the dendrites of the neuron may be wrapped in one of two protective coverings, the myelin sheath and the neurilemma. These act like the insulation on an electric wire to keep nerve messages from interfering with one another.

How do neurons apply to our daily lives? Have you ever noticed how the more you practice a skill, such as playing baseball or the violin, the easier it gets? Here's why. According to Salvador Borges, a neurobiologist at UCD, the ends of the dendrites connect with more and more neurons as you repeat an action. The connection between the neurons becomes stronger, priming the neurons for action. The cell that is sending the message releases little bags, or vesicles, that contain neurotransmitters. The receiving cell has receptors that respond to specific neurotransmitters, like a lock and a key.

So for example, the more you practice violin, the more connections will be made, and the stronger they will be. But if you don't practice, these connections begin falling apart, unless you practiced enough to make very strong connections, that have staying power. That’s why it is easier to play violin as an adult if you learned as a child.

Explorit Science Center is located at 3141 5th Street in East Davis. The current exhibition is What A Shock! The Human Nervous System. Public hours are Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Sunday from 1:00 to 4:30 p.m., and Tuesday through Friday from 2:00 to 4:30 p.m. Regular admission is $3; members, teachers (with school ID) and children under 4 are free.

Explorit Science Center Weekly Column