This week we learn about adolescent brains, legal drinking ages, and antibacterial soap.
- Adolescent brains develop in a way that overemphasizes reward and underemphasizes risk, which may help explain teenager's decision making and susceptibility to peer and emotional pressures.
- Rebelling against the brain: Public engagement with the ‘neurological adolescent’
- Alcohol-Related Risk of Driver Fatalities: An Update Using 2007 Data (Voas et al)
- Case Closed: Research Evidence on the Positive Public Health Impact of the Age 21 Minimum Legal Drinking Age in the United States (DeJong & Blanchette)
- Drinking and driving among college students (Wechsler et al)
- Antibacterial soap containing triclosan is no better at killing germs during hand-washing than regular soap.
Thomas Donoghue
Tom is a PhD student in the Cognitive Science department of UCSD, where he uses computational methods and neural recordings to investigate how the brain communicates with itself. He did a Cognitive Science Bachelor's degree at McGill University and has research experience in neuroimaging and language studies. Outside of being a science nerd, he enjoys travel and music.
Athanasios Athanassiadis
Thanasi is a physicist and engineer who uses light and sound to investigate how the physical world works. For his research, he has made sound with lasers for underwater sensing, built an x-ray scanner for sandcastles, and measured how jets of water can be used to move underwater robots. Outside of science, Thanasi is a passionate clarinetist, playing with a variety of Greek and Turkish groups around the Northeast.
