The Human Brain

Christof Koch, chief scientist and president of the Allen Institute for Brian Science, says, “The brain is by far the most complex piece of highly excitable matter in the known universe by any measure. We don’t even understand the brain of a worm” (The New York Times, Oct. 15, 2018, p. A3). The information in the brain equals that contained in 20 million separate books (George Cahill, Science Digest, Vol. 89, issue 3, 1981, p. 105). It has about 200 billion nerve cells with hundreds of trillions of connections called synapses. Each synapse functions like a microprocessor “with both memory-storage and information-processing elements” (Cornelius Hunter, “More Switches Than the Internet,” Darwin’s God, Nov. 17, 2010). One synapse may contain 1,000 switches. In the cerebral cortex alone there are 125 trillion synapses, which is about how many stars would fill 1,500 Milky Way galaxies. “The brain’s total number of connections rivals the stars of the universe in number, yet the connections follow an orderly plan” (Alan Gillen, Body by Design, p. 87). There are 100 billion glia cells which provide the biological “batteries” for brain activity (The Revelation of God and Nature). The brain receives signals from 137 million light receptors in the eyes, 100,000 hearing receptors in the ears, 10,000 taste buds, 5-6 million odor detecting cells, 30,000 heat sensors on the skin, 250,000 cold sensors, and 500,000 touch sensors (adapted from Bert Thompson, The Revelation of God and Nature). The hearing receptors alone send up to 25,000 auditory signals per second to the brain, which interprets them as voices, thunder, music, or a million other sounds (Jackson, The Human Body). The brain receives 20% of all of the blood pumped from the heart. The brain produces over 50 different complex drugs needed to control our body, emotions, and thoughts. For example, endorphin, the brain’s pain-killer, is three times more potent than morphine (A Closer Look at the Evidence).

​(Friday Church News Notes, October 19, 2018, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

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