During the Fall and Winter of 2018, 500 Women Scientists celebrated an amazing woman scientist by inviting Pods to host a screening of My Love Affair with the Brain: The Life and Science of Dr. Marian Diamond.
Dr. Diamond spent over six decades researching the human brain, an endeavor she describes as “pure joy.” Pods from around the world used this film screening as an opportunity to showcase the legacy and brilliance of Dr. Diamond, while also increasing public awareness of 500 Women Scientists and raising funds for our growing, thriving organization. We were thrilled that the film’s creator, Luna Productions, provided this movie to our Pods for free to screen for audiences. With our step-by-step how-to guide, your Pod can locate a venue, sell tickets, and raise money for your local group with ease.
About the film
Meet Dr. Marian Diamond … and prepare to be smitten. Experience for yourself why she describes her 60 year career researching the human brain as “pure joy.” It is no exaggeration to say that Dr. Diamond changed science and society in dramatic ways over the course of her career. Her groundbreaking work is all the more remarkable as it began when so few women entered science at all. Shouted at from the back of the conference hall by noteworthy male academics as she presented her research, and disparaged in the scientific journals of a more conservative era, Dr. Diamond simply did the work and followed where her curiosity led her, bringing about a worldwide paradigm shift or two in the process. As she points out, in order to get to the answers that matter, you have to start by asking the right questions.
Part biography, part scientific adventure story, part inspirational tale; this is a story of a worthy role model - a woman who has lived joyously at the forefront of scientific exploration and education, finding and sharing fact-based good news about the brain.
Narrated by TV-star Mayim Bialik (Amy on Big Bang Theory, Blossom on Blossom). She not only plays a neuroscientist on TV, but is one in real life, Dr. Mayim Bialik, a PhD in Neuroscience from UCLA.
SCIENTIFIC HIGHLIGHTS OF MARIAN DIAMOND’S CAREER
One of the founders of modern neuroscience. Her pioneering research preceded the very term “neuroscience”.
Enrichment and brain plasticity (how the brain changes due to experience and environment) are concepts we now take for granted, but they were a scientific battleground where Dr. Diamond decisively challenged the old view of the brain as fixed and unchangeable. She was the first to find actual evidence of plasticity in a brain, forever changing our understanding of the brain … and ourselves.
First to publish a study of Albert Einstein’s brain – fueling yet another paradigm change, a renewed appreciation of glial cells, the 80% of the brain that, previously, was said ‘to do nothing.’
4.6 million views of her YouTube Anatomy lectures, making it the 2nd most popular college course in the world, and inspiring the NY Times to call her “one of the tweedy celebrities of cyberspace.”
about luna productions
Luna Productions is the documentary production partnership of Catherine Ryan and Gary Weimberg. They are 6-time Emmy Award nominees, 2-time Emmy Award winners. Catherine and Gary have been personal and professional partners since 1980. They are a fully equipped media production company with capacity for everything from idea to delivery, start to finish, for any audience you could imagine; via theatrical release, broadcast television, internet, as well as in-house, in-person or event use.