The Hippocampus~ A little Science with your Art

Seahorse is the title given to 54 species of marine fish in the genus Hippocampus. "Hippocampus" comes from the Ancient Greek hippos meaning "horse" and kampos meaning "sea monster".^{[2]  (Taken from Wikipedia)}

The Hungarian neuroscientist László Seress' 1980 preparation of the human hippocampus and fornix compared with a seahorse.

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You are probably wondering why I am sharing this with you.  My husband is a Neuroscientist and studies the part of the brain called the "hippocampus".  I made this piece for his office.  When he became tenured I gave him a beautiful crystal Seahorse for his office, and now this.

Here is a little bit about what my husband does taken from MITnews.

Dr. Matthew Wilson, associate professor of the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, has been promoted to associate professor with tenure. Wilson studies mechanisms of learning and memory in the brain; his research contributions include GENESIS, a software package for large-scale simulation of biological neural networks, and the "tetrode" technology for recording simultaneously from large numbers of neurons in freely moving animals. He has used his new techniques to make major discoveries in the way mammalian (rat) brains explore, organize, recall and use spatial memories. He has gone on to explore the role of the hippocampus in memory; the relationship between activities in the hippocampus and the cortex for preserving and ordering memory; and the role of REM sleep as a mechanism for reevaluation and reorganization of existing memories. Wilson received the B.S. in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1983, the M.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Wisconsin in 1986, and the Ph.D. in computational and neural systems from the California Institute of Technology in 1990.

I am very proud of my husband, and rarely share private information on my blog.  I hope you don't mind, once in awhile.

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 I have always been fascinated by seahorses. I remember watching a video of a seahorse giving birth in science class while in elementary school.(By the way, it is the male that gives birth).  I loved watching Jacques Cousteau and his oceanic expeditions.  I am a Pisces.  Maybe that is why I love sealife.  I used to dream of scuba diving when I was little.

Finally I am entering this image to the Make It Crafty DT call.  I love this image and enjoyed coloring it with my copics.  The white highlights are from a white gel pen.

<sup>I hope I didn't bore you with my long post.  Thanks so much for stopping by.

Hugs and smiles,
Janice</sup>