Our brains are unfathomably complex. Quicker than any computer, our brain is the center of all human activity. It ensures that our whole body is working in perfect harmony so that we may live as productively as possible. The brain has been a focal point of human research for as long as research itself. Scientists have studied both living and dead brains in the pursuit of understanding as much as possible about this extraordinary organ. The brain’s many functions are far too numerous to list, but detailed below are just some of the incredible things scientists have discovered about the brain.

Speed

Exploration into the speed of the brain carried out at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has yielded some staggering data. Aiming to analyze the time it takes the brain to recognize an image, researchers estimated the organ to require around 100 milliseconds to identify a picture.

In some instances, the brain needed significantly less, able to correctly recognize the image in just 13 milliseconds. The electrical impulses generated by a stimulated neuron within the brain can travel up to an incredible 268 miles per hour.

Power

As the nucleus of the human body, our brains consume about 1/5^th of our daily energy intake, around 400 calories for women and slightly more for men.

By constantly sending chemical and electrical signals throughout the body, the brain generates around 23 watts of power, making it theoretically capable of powering a lightbulb.

Aging and Memory

Despite its importance to the body, the brain doesn’t fully develop until the age of 25. Consisting of 60% fat, the brain is in fact the fattiest organ in the human body.

Researchers have determined that the brain consists of around 86 billion neurons, each connecting to others totaling close to 1 quadrillion connections. These combinations are called synapses and are how neurons communicate, increasing our capacity to learn new things and store memories.

The Smells That Take You Back in Time

They say that music has the ability to transport us back to a different place in our lives. That’s true, but doesn’t smell have exactly the same effect too? What wafts up your nostrils can be just as potent as what you hear. We all have those special, and even not-so-special, aromas that are associated with many and varied points in our lives. The brand of deodorant we used in high school whizzes us straight back to the locker rooms after gym class. The smell of a pencil being sharpened is a buzz you won’t have had since elementary school. And that strange smell as the glue holding a packet of trading cards is prised apart? Congratulations, you’re ten years old again. What about the smell of a home-cooked meal - does that bring you to your grandmother's kitchen, or perhaps it reminds you of a neighbor's house? Smells are different for different people.

woman smelling bouquet of purple lavender — Getty

Scents are even used by food stores to sell their products. This may cause your entire belief system to fall apart, but bread isn’t always baked in-store. But the stores use the smell of baking bread from a can to entice you to keep shopping and spending. They know exactly what they’re doing because they know the human brain equates the smell with freshness and good quality produce! The next time you get that smell of freshly baked bread, check if you can really see where it's coming from! We’ve only got five senses and they’re all as acute and finely tuned as each other. It’s no surprise that what we smell should rank alongside the food and drinks we can taste, the artifacts we can touch, the sounds we can hear, and the things we can see as a way of bringing it all back. Having a powerful sense of smell is as important as what we see in front of us, especially when something is burning.