What a 'STRANGE MATTER'

Welcome to Inside your brain!

What's your brain like? Is it soft and squashy, or hard and rubbery? … and is it really made of grey matter? Find out all about your brain and discover what goes on inside it

Human brain is the most complex phenomena in the known universe.

When you were in your mother’s womb, each of your 100 000 000 000 brain cells knew how to wire up and what to become. This astonishing process continues into your late teens, sculpting the person you are.

However, the truly fundamental factor is not only how this astounding process happens, but why it happens.

Why did the human brain become so complex? Why did we learn to speak? Why do we have certain behaviours? Why did we become so intelligent? And how do our brains differ from a monkey’s or a dolphin’s?

All these questions can be answered by the mind-blowing and truly fundamental theory of evolution. 'A mere Hypothesis'

What is evolution?
Darwin’s theory of evolution proposes that animals well suited to their environment survive - and pass on their genes. Animals that are not well suited perish before they have offspring. Their mixture of genes die with them. 'A mere Hypothesis'

Over the course of millions of years, this has led to an astounding array of different creatures and organisms on our planet. Each perfectly suited (ie adapted) to it’s own environment. Ant-eaters with long noses to probe ant-hills, sharks stream-lined to speed through water and bees that So how did brains evolve? 'A mere Hypothesis'

If you didn’t know about the theory of evolution, how would you explain where brains came from? One option would be they all appeared on the planet one day (the creationist argument).

However, armed with an understanding of evolution, you can look at the world in a new way – and work out how animal bodies and behaviours have given them a survival edge over their competitors. work together in a hive.

Our brain cells, brain molecules, neurotransmitters and synapses are almost identical in all animals – so the brains of insects, fish, reptiles, birds and mammals. 'A mere Hypothesis'

Early brains on our planet were very simple – and are found now in animals lower down the evolutionary ‘tree’ for example in insects, worms and snails. These early brains are more collections of ganglia – where hundreds of nerve cell bodies congregate. 'A mere Hypothesis'

Fish and amphibians have Mammals have a vast variety of brain shapes and sizes. The biggest brain on our planet belongs to the blue whale – weighing in at 6kg, compared to the 1.4 kg brain of a human.

Does size matter?
Interestingly, size isn’t everything – and provides us with a bit of a puzzle.
The North American ruby-throated hummingbird has a brain weighing less than a gram, where as a blue whale has a 6kg brain. Yet both show a marvellous variety of behaviours. Both sing, defend territories, attract mates, raise young and migrate seasonally for long distances. The tiny-brained hummingbird also has an elaborate courtship dance, builds nests and solves some interesting pattern-recognition problems in finding flowers.

Do intelligent mammals have bigger brains? In general yes, but only when considered as a proportion of their overall body size.well defined brains – albeit small ones in relation to their body size. Reptiles and bird brains become ever more complex with areas devoted to specific senses, for example vision and smelle all made from the same building blocks.

Again evolution can explain the amount of brain devoted to a particular task. Crocodiles have huge olfactory bulbs, the area of the brain that deals with smell. In contract, humans have vast areas of the brain devoted to vision.

Evolution can even explain how the vast array of animal behaviours came into being.

A good indication of intelligence is brain weight in relation to body weight.

Mammal Body weight Brain weight
Blue whale 60 000 kg 6kg 0.01%
Lion 200 kg 200g 0.1%
Rat 200 g 3g 1.5%
Human 70 kg 1.3 kg 1.9%

'WHAT A MERE HYPOTHESIS'