Ode To The Brain

[robert winston]

It's amazing to consider that i'm holding in my hands

The place where someone once felt, thought, and loved

For centuries, scientists have been battling to understand

What this unappealing object is all about

[vilayanur ramachandran]

Here is this mass of jelly

You can hold in the palm of your hands

And it can contemplate the vastness of interstellar space

[carl sagan]

The brain has evolved from the inside out

Its structure reflects all the stages through which it has passed

[jill bolte taylor]

Information in the form of energy

Streams in simultaneously

Through all of our sensory systems

And then it explodes into this enormous collage

Of what this present moment looks like

What it feels like

And what it sounds like

And then it explodes into this enormous collage

And in this moment we are perfect

We are whole and we are beautiful

[robert winston]

It appears rather gruesome

Wrinkled like a walnut, and with the consistency of mushroom

[carl sagan]

What we know is encoded in cells called neurons

And there are something like a hundred trillion neural connections

This intricate and marvelous network of neurons has been called

An enchanted loom

The neurons store sounds too, and snatches of music

Whole orchestras play inside our heads

20 million volumes worth of information

Is inside the heads of every one of us

The brain is a very big place

In a very small space

No longer at the mercy of the reptile brain

We can change ourselves

Think of the possibilities

[bill nye]

Think of your brain as a newspaper

Think of all the information it can store

But it doesn't take up too much room

Because it's folded

[oliver sacks]

We see with the eyes

But we see with the brain as well

And seeing with the brain

Is often called imagination

[various]

[robert winston]

It is the most mysterious part of the human body

And yet it dominates the way we live our adult lives

It is the brain