大学英语精读-1 Unit Nine：The Brain -1

Throughout the ages different ideas have been expressed about the working of the human brain.

It is only recently, however, that science has begun to give us some idea of how the brain really works.

The Brain The Most Powerful Computer in the Universe

Man still has a lot to learn about the most powerful and complex part of his body -- the brain.

In ancient times men did not think that the brain was the centre of mental activity.

Aristotle the philosopher of ancient Greece thought that the mind was based in the heart.

It was not until the 18th century that man realised that the whole of the brain was involved in the workings of the mind.

During the 19th century scientists found that when certain parts of the brain were damaged men lost the ability to do certain things.

And so, people thought that each part of the brain controlled a different activity.

But modern research has found that this is not so. It is not easy to say exactly what each part of the brain does.

In the past 50 years there has been a great increase in the amount of research being done on the brain.

Chemists and biologists have found that the way the brain works is far more complicated that they had thought.

In fact many people believe that we are only now really starting to learn the truth about how the human brain works.

The more scientists find out, the more questions they are unable to answer.

For instance, chemists have found that over 100,000 chemical reactions take place in the brain every second.

Mathematicians who have tried to use computers to copy the way the brain works have found that even using the latest electronic equipment they would have to build a computer which weighed over 10,000 kilos.

Some recent research also suggests that we remember everything that happens to us.