Hey, it's Alan, and I just wanted to let you know that you can now listen to the ongoing

history of new music early and ad-free on Amazon music, included with Prime.

The most powerful and strangest lump of organic material in the known universe is sitting

inside your skull. The human brain weighs about three pounds. Call it 1,400 grams if you're feeling metric.

And contains about 10 billion neurons.

A piece of brain, the size of a grain of sand, contains 100,000 neurons and over a billion synapses.

At the same time, the brain uses only about 10 watts to function, which is 10 times more

efficient than your laptop. One brain, we think, is equivalent to at least 100,000 laptops

when it comes to computing power. And that actually seems kind of low. Even then, it can do things

no computer can do, no matter how big. That thing

inside your head could have a storage capacity of perhaps up to 2.5 petabytes, although no one is

really sure for yet. In fact, the capacity of the brain might in fact be unlimited. Not bad for

something that's 60% fat. There is no obvious biological reason for it,

but our brain seemed to be hardwired for music. There are special areas of the brain devoted to

just dealing with music and nothing else. Maybe this is the result of our ancient ancestors

trying to imitate bird song. It could be related to language. Maybe this is the result of our ancient ancestors trying to imitate bird song. It could be

related to language. Maybe it has something to do with storytelling. I mean, details are sometimes

easier to remember if they're put to music. Or maybe music developed alongside with religious rituals

and chants. Because of the way music is wired into the brain, it's a very useful tool when it comes to figuring out how that 10 watt lump of fat in our skulls works.

And sometimes we learn things that are completely unexpected and almost always totally wonderful.

Let me show you. Here are some mind-blowing facts about music, the brain, and the body.

This is the ongoing history of new music podcast with Alan Cross.

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