this post was submitted on 22 Nov 2024
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Science Memes

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

If we are talking facts, neurons don't use electricity, it's a cascade of released ion potentials. Thats why nerves are so much slower than electrical signals.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 18 hours ago

He should have said "power" not electricity

Humans dissipate power in the range of old tungsten lamps - on the order of 100W at rest, brains use about 20% of that, so 20W - about the same as an energy efficient globe

[–] [email protected] 10 points 20 hours ago

It's really both, neurons communicate electrochemically. Neurons establish a voltage difference across their membrane, typically positive outside, negative inside, by concentrating ions on one side or the other. In a single neuron, the action potential (signal) results in the electric polarity of the cell membrane switching to negative outside, positive inside, with the change in gradient cascading down the length of the axon as ions are allowed to flow across the membrane by voltage-gated ion channels. After depolarization, ions are actively and selectively pumped to either side of the membrane, repolarizing it.

There's a lot more to it than that but it's 100% charge dependent. The change in charge is mediated by the flow of ions across a membrane instead of the flow of electrons through a conductor, hence why it's slower.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 20 hours ago

I Upvoted just for the tapioca mention

[–] Heavybell 1 points 16 hours ago

Aren't the eyes teeeechnically part of the brain?

[–] [email protected] 48 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Fun fact, the average adult brain also has a credit cards worth of plastic inside. So that bacon has some company!

[–] TrickDacy 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 day ago (2 children)
[–] Agent641 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Once I put my head up to the EFTPOS machine and the payment actually went through

[–] voracitude 8 points 21 hours ago

EFTPOS is the fastest payment system in the world for identifying Australians on the internet. If you need to camouflage, you can use "card reader" instead. I don't know when you'd need to camouflage like that, but these are interesting times.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Additionally, the average brain is about 1300 grams. 0.5% of 1300 is 6.5 grams, and plastic credit cards weigh roughly 5 grams.

0.5% is really hard for me to visualize. A credit card in everyone's brain is unfortunately easy.....

[–] [email protected] 4 points 21 hours ago
CARD DECLINED
[–] [email protected] 66 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Contrary to popular belief, we're all profoundly stupid. Even the smartest among us spend enormous effort in their struggle to comprehend our surroundings.

[–] esc27 31 points 1 day ago (3 children)

At least half of us are below average.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago

If we're talking about IQ, than no. An IQ between 85 and 115 is considered average. This entails 68% of the population. So, only 32% of people are not average and only 16% are below average.

[–] Eheran 28 points 1 day ago

You mean the median? :3

[–] FinalRemix 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 day ago (2 children)

It's not. I assure you there are far more outliers on the low end.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I endeavour to be as stupid as possible so more people can be above average.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 20 hours ago

America thanks you for your service.

[–] Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

But I'm sure there are more people with 200+ IQ than with <0.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago) (1 children)

I understand that you're saying there are more incredible geniuses than full on retards.

However, IQ scores are a normal distribution with an arbitrarily defined mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15.

So, IQ scores of 0 or 200 are both 6.6 standard deviations from the mean. If IQ is truly a normal distribution, you'd expect the number of people with IQ scores <= 0 and the number with scores >= 200 to be exactly the same, simply because this is how the scores are defined.

If you try to look up what proportion of the population falls outside 6.6 standard deviations, the z-tables don't go out this far. It's essentially 0% (0/100) but how many is it out of 8 billion?

[–] Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In 1 points 20 minutes ago

If IQ is truly a normal distribution

It's not. Here's a list containing a number of people above 200.

However, no-one has a negative IQ.

[–] [email protected] 61 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Maybe the brain will one day invent something more tiresome than watching reddit users exchange tautologies.

[–] [email protected] 51 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I often describe myself as "3lbs of mostly fat piloting a meat mech." To the point that my wife sometimes refers to injuries as malfunctions/damage to her meat mech.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

I’m an ugly bag of mostly water.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] PlantDadManGuy 7 points 1 day ago

Prions are just like seasoning right?

[–] weariedfae 4 points 1 day ago

But poltergeist cat is real!

[–] RubberElectrons 17 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] RubberElectrons 5 points 1 day ago

Fitting, really, to be a dream to meat.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You momma is FAT (with water and salt)

[–] espentan 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] kautau 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yeah your momma’s so big she’s not even FAT she’s exFAT and can store files up to 120 petabytes

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

Yo mama's like exFAT; she's got no permissions so anyone can access anything and her low requirements mean she gets embedded everywhere.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

OP has a baby in their head

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Brain uses more wattage than a lightbulb, unless we are counting incandescent bulbs because it makes the stat seem more impressive.

[–] SuperIce 34 points 1 day ago (2 children)

That phrase first came out when incandescent bulbs were the most common, so they consumed like 60W vs 7W for an equivalent LED bulb. The brain is somewhere around 20W.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

I don't give a damn about Lemmy points, but you just said essentially the same thing as the above commenter and the Lemmy points are diametrically opposed. I love it!

[–] disguy_ovahea 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It was estimated back when incandescent was standard.

Keep in mind that’s not accounting for energy consumed from neurons burning oxygen, which accounts for 20% of a human body’s consumption.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK28194/

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

20% of your bodies energy is about 20 Watts.

Normal-weight humans burn about 2200 kilocalories a day, which is about 9.2 megajoules. There are 8640 seconds in a day, so that works out to roughly 100 joules per second, or 100 Watt. 20% of that is 20 Watts for the brain.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

That's rest consumtion tho.

[–] disguy_ovahea 2 points 1 day ago

Well done. So even added to the electrical consumption it’s less than an incandescent bulb. Incredible.