When scientist do not practice good science, misinformation spreads like a virus. I am certainly guilty of this. For example, I have been sharing with students over the past 14 years that the average human brain has 100 billion neurons. I never looked for the original source to see how they came up with this number. I just assumed that it was correct. Fortunately, neuroscientist Suzana Herculano-Houzel, questioned this number. She looked for the original source and could not find it! So she devised a brilliant way to count the number of neurons in a brain. She counted 86 billion neurons in the average human brain. For more compelling facts on the human brain, watch her ted talk. Its pretty cool. Check your sources! And not just for the footnote, but check the methods and conditions of the findings. This is key to scientific understanding. ted/talks/suzana_herculano_houzel_what_is_so_special_about_the_human_brain?utm_source=newsletter_weekly_2014-08-02&utm_campaign=newsletter_weekly&utm_medium=email&utm_content=talk_of_the_week_image#t-339841
Posted on: Tue, 05 Aug 2014 16:00:01 +0000
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