Did You Know: A museum dedicated to the brain is being developed in Southern California?

Did you know a museum dedicated to the brain is being planned in Southern California? The Brain Museum, started by Dr. Manuela Yassa with funding support from the Dana Foundation, aims to make neuroscience accessible to people of all educational backgrounds and ages.

Dr. Yassa has spent her entire career educating, informing, and inspiring the youth about neuroscience through science competitions, neuroscience outreach programs, and research experiences. She’s now expanding her reach from the Irvine School District into the broader public through this brain museum.

This brick and mortar experience in Southern California aims to engage visitors through real-time experiments, immersive environments, and interactive engagements that encourage individuals to engage with neuroscience.

And why does building this museum matter? Well, as the museum’s website puts it, “Brain science shapes how we learn, decide, create, and care for one another, but there is still no public place devoted entirely to exploring it through hands-on, immersive experience.”

They go on to say that “we are [co-creating] a place where brain science is explored by doing, not just by reading.”

The Brain Museum is still in the planning and design phase, but as always, we in the Civic Science Media Lab have a number of questions. For example: What design decisions are community members contributing to during the co-creation process? How is success being defined, and over what time frame? What type of neuroscience will visitors engage with? And how is the museum addressing barriers that might keep visitors away, such as ticket prices?

Anyway, there’s a lot to discover as this museum is developing and launching in the upcoming years.

Did you know about the Brain Museum?

Well, now you know.

What follow-on actions did the insights above spark for you?

44 follow-on actions documented thus far

37% of the first 120 Overall goal: 1,000

Document your actions (opens in a new tab) → Takes about one minute

Add CSML on Google (opens in a new tab) ↗

Jacinda Taggett

Jacinda is a neuroscience-trained science writer and journalist, editor-in-chief of a science publication and founder of a neuroscience platform with 1,000+ monthly readers. She is currently working toward a Master of Science in science communication at Stony Brook University.