Over 500 high school students visited the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown in 2013, proving our Open Door Policy a worthwhile mission that will continue in 2014.

Once a month, investigators from the Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme (CNP) welcome a group of 50-60 students who arrive from all across Portugal. The investigators introduce the students to the world of neuroscience, talk to them about their research, their motivations and career paths. All visits end with a tour around the laboratories and facilities.

2014 was chosen to be the Year of the brain in Europe, with the goal of communicating scientific concepts in neuroscience to the general public and increasing awareness to neural disorders and diseases. In Portugal, as part of this project, Ciência Viva has launched a Video Contest, recruiting CNP as one of its national scientific partners.

On February 15th, a group of CNP investigators organised a flash mob called “Sem A Ciência o Mundo Pára” to call the attention of everyone who passed by Praça Luis de Camões in Lisbon, to the importance of investing in science.

Read what Simone Lackner, one of the organisers, wrote about the cause behind this flash mob (watch here the event video).

CNP postdoctoral researcher Alex Gomez Marin receives an honourable mention for the scientific image he submitted to the Art of Neuroscience Competition of 2014.

The image, titled ‘Decision Timescapes’ captures the temporal evolution of the path a mouse makes while it is exploring a new space. Read more about it and about the other winning science / art works at the contest website.

Once again, CNP members promoted and organised exciting national and international initiatives for Brain Awareness Week (BAW) of 2014.

In a study published yesterday (19.3.2014) in the scientific journal Neuron, neuroscientists at the Champalimaud Foundation, in collaboration with neuroscientists from Harvard University, describe the first activity maps at the resolution of single cells and throughout the entire brain of behaving zebrafish.

Ar | Respire connosco is getting ready for DançAr: Dancing In The Brain. This exciting programme includes three events and several workshops, bringing together Dance and Neuroscience at the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown. Check out the programme teaser.

Why dance?
Why would anything/anybody dance?
Why do humans dance?
Why do I dance?

Watch the latest video by the Human Brain Project (HBP), a global, collaborative effort of neuroscience, medicine and computing to understand the brain, which includes the participation of CNP researchers.(Zach Mainen and Rui Costa).

As one of the schools participating in Sciencecaclifragilistic, Valsassina School has recently published a piece about this CNP-organised science and education project in the Gazeta Valsassina of April 2014. In the same edition of this magazine, Rui Costa is interviewed by Valsassina students, talking about how he became a neuroscientist, about the importance of sleeping and eating well for synapse formation and more.

On May 7, 2014, EMBO (European Molecular Biology Organisation) announced the joining of new members, among them was CNP Investigator Rui Costa.

As one of the new members elected on the occasion of EMBO’s 50th anniversary, Rui Costa joins a prestigious group of over 1500 international field-leading scientists, which includes CNP Director Zachary Mainen.