Every day's a school day

Years ago a teacher of mine said that she always tried to learn a new thing every day and she really impressed upon me the importance of not leaving school with a ‘done and dusted’ attitude to learning. I took her advice to heart, both in my 20-year science career and in my every day life.

I always try to learn one new thing every day, no matter how small. Today for example, I learned that penguin poo is pink and that you can see it from space - you’re welcome.

I joke about this but really, learning new things is vital for our brain health and for our overall wellbeing. Studies show that learning a new skill can help to slow the rate of cognitive decline in older people - at least in part due to the fact that it encourages new neural pathways to be formed. By learning new things you are literally helping to rewire your brain, forming new connections and encouraging a more robust and active neural network. In fact, just by learning this snippet of information you are actively encouraging new neural connections to form - how meta is that?