• Question: Do you know everything about our brains?(e.g. How it works)

    Asked by hannahjanescott to Andrew, Beth, Bruce, Lindy, Lizzie on 18 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Beth Mortimer

      Beth Mortimer answered on 18 Jun 2012:

      We’re nowhere near!

      There are so many areas of science looking at this. In medicine there are studies ranging from cancer in the brain, to degenerative diseases (like Parkinson’s disease), to brain injuries. Progress is being made, but not enough is known to be able to understand and cure all brain diseases. As the brain is so complex, there are often very rare or unique effects on people.

      In biology, there are also a lot of questions looking at how humans evolved from apes, and looking at how our brain makes us human. No one knows how or when our brains enabled us to think the way that we do, although there are clues about when art or language started.

      The brain is so complex that I think we will never know everything about our brains!

    • Photo: Lindy Heath

      Lindy Heath answered on 18 Jun 2012:

      Gosh, no, not at all. As a scientist after you have studied at school and then for your degree you choose an area that you would like to specialise in. You complete lots of experiments and learn a lot about that particular area in science. This means that all scientists have different areas of expertise and knowledge. In my case, I studied a little about the brain during A-level biology but I am not an expert! In fact, there is still so much that the science experts studying the brain don’t know that it will take a long, long time before anyone can claim to know everything about our brains!

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