Our Brain

The size isnt whats important, its the Fourier transform that makes us cooler

 

http://pharyngula.org/~pzmyers/MyersLab/teaching/Bi104/l18/eq.html [Broken]

In other words, "Nope."

 

According to Bystander's chart (excellent, BTW!), sperm whales (Genus: Physeter).

 

Here's a somewhat related question. In the relatively short time that us homo sapiens have been around, do you think our brains have changed any? Note that I am not talking about collective knowledge--there is clearly more of that to go around now--but raw thought capacity. It occurred to me that if you could somehow have a young cave person (the newer, more PC term) live in the present, there's no reason they couldn't be an A-student. Maybe a little hairier than most, though...

 

We are tops in brain mass relative to body mass, however, according to that chart. Although Grampus (dolphins) are amazingly close.

 

Just wondering......what is the factor to determine cleverness, and how?

 

I wish to know that myself... But think of it this way, not all humans are in the same level of intelligence. Some are smart compared to let's say...monkeys, and some are not .

 

The early cro magnons average cranial sizes 25% larger than todays average human. However the later cro magnons had smaller head sizes until eventually we have what we have today. Of course Cro Magnons are humans like us.

 

I would expect that a certain species of whale to have a brain larger in size than ours, purly just because they are massive compared to us. It wouldn't be proportional for them to have a tiny brain the size of a walnut. I know are brains are larger than walnuts, but you understand what I mean.

Humans only use, what is it?, about 8% of our brain. Could you imagine what we would be like if we used ALL of our brain?

 

If a human brain is roughly 7 times larger than what would be expected, then why is the brian so much larger, especially if we only use 8% of it?

 

We use 100% of our brain.

 

Yeah, that 8% thing is just a myth.

 

If its not 8% what is it?

 

It's 100%.

 

The Ten-Percent Myth.

 

Pretty interesting stuff. Definitely proved me wrong. Good site, Hitssquad.