Men. And women. For centuries people have argued ferociously about whether or not we are born with different brains. Now it seems we're getting close to an answer. Horizon: Is Your Brain Male or Female? Michael Mosley & Professor Alice Roberts, BBC 2014
Are brain differences innate, or are they shaped by the world around us? ibid.
Scientists have found no difference in levels of intelligence. ibid.
Are parents responsible for these toy choices? ibid.
We humans uniquely habitually walk around upright on two legs … Big brains and upright walking really are hallmarks of humans. Professor Alice Roberts, Horizon: What Makes Us Human? BBC 2013
The brains of our human beings need the stimulation of other humans. ibid.
Human brains have about 40% more connections between cortical neurons than the brains of other primates. ibid.
An increase in brain size over time. Dr Alice Roberts, Origins of Us 2/3: Guts, BBC 2011
Recent research suggests it was cooking, not meat, that fuelled the evolution of our big brains. It was cooking that made us human. ibid.
The skulls of our ancestors clearly show an increase in brain size. Dr Alice Roberts, Origins of Us 3/3: Brains
Homo Habilis ... only had a brain half the size of ours. ibid.
Growing our big brains takes time. ibid.
Our amazingly clever and complex brains. ibid.
Our brains are just another complex system. Stephen Hawking’s Grand Design: The Meaning of Life, Discovery 2012
There is a real danger that computers will develop intelligence and take over. We urgently need to develop direct connections to the brain so that computers can add to human intelligence rather than be in opposition. Stephen Hawking
I think the brain is essentially a computer and consciousness is like a computer program. It will cease to run when the computer is turned off. Theoretically, it could be re-created on a neural network, but that would be very difficult, as it would require all one’s memories. Stephen Hawking
It is essential to understand our brains in some detail if we are to assess correctly our place in this vast and complicated universe we see all around us. Francis Crick, What Mad Pursuit
This is where a century of enquiry into human behaviour fought out on the airwaves has brought us. We are undoubtedly products of our biology, and the potential for human failing will always be there. But that doesn’t mean we’re slaves to our nature. The sophistication of the human brain and the ways in which we live together have given us the power to recognise and master our worst impulses. This after all is what being human is all about. Great Thinkers: In Their Own Words 1/3: Human, All Too Human, BBC 2011
Willis had established a link between the state of the brain and the state of the mind. He wrote the first book specifically about the brain. Michael Mosley, The Story of Science: Power, Proof and Passion, BBC 2010
Who are we? We are the product of our genes and our environment. Billions of neuro-chemical reactions firing every single second of our lives. In us reason and emotion are frequently at war. Thoughts, passions, memories, behaviour emerge unbidden out of the depths. Brain scans reveal many parts of the brain operation outside our conscious awareness. ibid.
Better nutrition boosts the human brain. Mankind: The Story of All of Us I, History Channel 2012
With that larger brain the ancestors of man-made two inventions ... stone tools ... social organisation. Jacob Bronowski, The Ascent of Man 1/13: Lower Than The Angels, BBC 1973
The ability to plan actions for which the reward is a long way off is the central thing that the human brain has. Jacob Bronowski, The Ascent of Man 13/13: The Long Childhood
When we’re looking at human evolution what we have to realise is we define ourselves by our big brain and by everything that results from that big brain. Professor Leslie Aiello, University College London
Welcome to my brain: the product of three and a half billion years of evolution and a few decades of living. It weighs only three pounds but it’s arguably the most complicated thing in the known universe. The Human Spark III: Brain Matters, PBS 2010
It takes perhaps ten or fifteen years for the brain to organise itself to process grammar swiftly and efficiently. ibid.
The single most notable thing about the human brain is its sheer size ... Three or four times bigger than a chimp’s brain. ibid.
The social brain: the ability of groups of humans to form contacts and cooperate with each other. Man on Earth with Tony Robinson: Triumph of the Homo Sapiens, Discovery 2009
Neanderthals: they’d evolved down a different branch of the human family tree. ibid.
One pocket remained in Gibraltar. ibid.
He fired a nail into his own brain. Dara O’Briain’s Science Club 5/6: The Brain, BBC 2012
The most mysterious object in the universe. ibid.
It is almost liquid. ibid.
Test the way our brains interpret the world and its complex systems. Dara O’Briain’s Science Club: Mindbending s2e1, BBC 2013
The science behind unconscious group behavior or swarming is new and fascinating. ibid.
Our brains are biological computers vulnerable to data theft. (Mind & Brain & Think) Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman s4e6: Can Our Minds Be Hacked? Science 2013
A laboratory in California has already begun to translate thoughts into pictures and words. ibid.
I felt a cleaving in my mind
As if my brain had split;
I tried to match it seam by seam,
But could not make it fit.
The thought behind I strove to join
Unto the thought before
But sequence ravelled out of reach
Like balls upon a floor. Emily Dickinson, The Lost Thought
No brain at all, some of them, only grey fluff that’s blown into their heads by mistake, and they don't Think. A A Milne, The House at Pooh Corner
Owl hasn’t exactly got Brain, but he Knows Things. A A Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh, 1926
The petrifactions of a plodding brain. Lord Byron
The brain is the most over-rated organ. Woody Allen, Manhattan 1979 starring Woody Allen & Diane Keaton & Michael Murphy & Mariel Hemingway & Meryl Streep & Anne Byrne et al, director Woody Allen
cf.
My brain – it’s my second favourite organ. Sleeper 1973 starring Woody Allen & Diane Keaton & John Beck & Marya Small & Susan Miller et al, director Woody Allen
Holy Moly, I gotta find that brain. If only it weren’t so small. (Brain & Reagan) Spitting Image s1e2, Ed at President Reagan’s bedside, part of ‘The President’s Brain Is Missing’ sketches
My dull brain was wrought
With things forgotten. William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Macbeth I iii 148-149, Macbeth
He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would suffice. Albert Einstein
Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking. Albert Einstein
We are not interested in the fact that the brain has the consistency of cold porridge. Alan Turing
I’ve got the brain of a four-year-old. I’ll bet he was glad to get rid of it. Groucho Marx
The brain is like a muscle. When it is in use we feel very good. Understanding is joyous. Professor Carl Sagan
But the brain does much more than recollect. It inter-compares, it synthesizes, it analyzes, it generates abstractions. Professor Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan, Cosmos: The Persistence of Memory, PBS 1980
Anybody who watches three games of football in a row should be declared brain dead. Erma Bombeck