• Question: How Heavy Is Then Average Brain??

    Asked by ambybaby to Cesar, Emily, Jamie, Kate, Philippa on 15 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by 2001ferdinerl.
    • Photo: Jamie Gallagher

      Jamie Gallagher answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      I held one a few weeks ago. It was quite light- around 500ml weight of water maybe. But it had also been shrunk and dried. I have a photo somewhere. I know the answer lies clear as day on wikipedia but again I am pleading ignornace. Though as it must be around 2 litres of water I’ll go with around 2kgs!

      Why don’t you have a guess before Emily tells us the real answer!

    • Photo: Emily Robinson

      Emily Robinson answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      Eeek Sorry Jamie in the last chat I let the cat out the bag! Good guess though as it is more like 1.3kg so close to the weight of a box of washing powder. When I go and do hands-on brain related activities with the general public I have a game where you feel how heavy the object is and try and match it with the right animal. A walkers crisp packet is the same as a cats brain!! No wonder my cat does so funny stuff sometimes!

      I have also held a human brain… quite a few actually! I do some teaching for your undergraduate students in neuranatomy. So me and my supervisor go and pick brain parts from your university dissection room and tell the students all about them. I think it is amazing that I get to see and hold them, although Jamie is right they look and feel very different to a living brain. I know this as my neurosurgeon friend told me!

    • Photo: Kate Clancy

      Kate Clancy answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      Nice answer, Emily! I have held monkey brains, never human brains. Back when I was a graduate student I taught intro to physical anthropology and osteology, and each time got to handle human and fossil bones — that was fun!

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