Sunday, September 9

Brains

"The brain is the most complex organ in the human body. It produces our every thought, action, memory, feeling and experience of the world. This jelly-like mass of tissue, weighing in at around 1.4 kilograms, contains a staggering one hundred billion nerve cells, or neurons.

The complexity of the connectivity between these cells is mind-boggling. Each neuron can make contact with thousands or even tens of thousands of others, via tiny structures called synapses. Our brains form a million new connections for every second of our lives. The pattern and strength of the connections is constantly changing and no two brains are alike.

It is in these changing connections that memories are stored, habits learned and personalities shaped, by reinforcing certain patterns of brain activity, and losing others."

Holy shit the brain is some ultrasupercomplex shit. I'm fascinated with everything that attempts to explain how the fuck all that jelly makes us who we are and especially how consciousness is achieved. Read all about that in this special New Scientist article and check out other cool things they got there.