Tag Archives: brain

I just read an article entitled 25 Things You Didn’t Know About the Human Brain.  As a lay-person who works in the medical field, I love these stories that attempt to turn the true mysteries of science and medicine into pop culture style information digestible by the masses.  While some of the facts in the brain article were more to the structural (the brain has 100,000 miles of blood vessels in it), others were more intriguing and got my imagination wandering.

My favorite factoid in the article was this:  your brain generates between 10 and 23 watts of power at rest, enough to power a light bulb.  I wonder if this is what led to the convention of showing a light bulb above the head to connote the formation of an idea. Perhaps this is a revelation that might lead to a solution to our nation’s demand for clean energy (excepting those with dirty minds, I suppose). Is there any way to harness the wattage of sleeping people to power their iPads and iPhones for tomorrow’s business day?  Just think: no more slumming at Starbucks to use the free … (read the rest)