BRAIN VS HEART

BRAIN VS HEART

In times past, the wonders of brains were not obvious to their owners. The ancient Egyptians famously removed the brains of bodies preserved as mummies by inserting a hook through the nose, as the organ wasn’t regarded as important in the afterlife. Hearts were often left in place, as they were believed to be the seat of the person’s intelligence and feelings. It took thousands of years to develop a full understanding of our grey matter, and it was only at the dawn of the twentieth century that the building block of the brain – the neuron – was discovered. We now know that the brain’s immense power is derived from the way these cells are connected. A complex ballet of electrical and chemical activity in the brain’s

network of 86 billion neurons allows us to sense our surroundings, feel, taste and remember. This network is made up of a staggering 170,000 kilometres of nerve bre. That’s almost half the distance from Earth to the moon.