Meet The Scientist Series: Can you take a picture of the brain?

Meet the Scientist
Welcome to the 2025–2026 Meet the Scientist series!
This year we have another exciting line-up of free online webinars designed for 4th to 6th class children in Ireland.

Can’t join live? Register anyway and you’ll get the replay link by email, available for 7 days.

Teachers, please note: the register button for each webinar will take you to a Zoom registration page with an overview of the content.

You will need to register separately for every webinar you would like your class to attend.

Can you take a picture of the brain?
Meet Blessing Folayan, Digital Health Consultant and Radiographer, as she explores the fascinating ways science helps us look inside the body.

Overview

• Who is a radiographer and what do they do?
• Who uses these images and why they are important.
• What can we see in the pictures?
  • The skull (very dense, like a helmet)
  • Different parts of the brain,with different jobs
• Different ways of looking inside the brain:
  • MRI – very detailed pictures what the brain looks like
  • Functional MRI (fMRI) – shows which parts light up when we do certain activities (short video clip)
  • PET scan – like a glow-in-the-dark map showing where energy is used
• What can’t brain scans show us? – limitations
• Wrap-up quiz – short, fun multiple choice questions