Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
Do you want to spend another summer stuck at home? Hey, Jim. How's your back? Uh, you know. I hear ya. Leave the small talk behind because Disney and Pixar invite you on an out-of-this-world adventure. Engaging hyperspeed. This is them! On June 20th. Welcome to the community. Prepare to be conquered! But I just got here! Follow me. What is this place? These are the lava tunnels. I am not
Disney and Pixar's Elio. In theaters June 20th. Tickets available now. Rated PG. Parental guidance suggested. From the brains behind Brains On, this is the Moment of Um. Moment of Um comes to you from APM Studios. I'm Thelonious T. Thacker, unbelievably gorgeous Persian cat and noted movie critic.
You might recognize me for my award-winning movie reviews for outlets such as the "Meow York Times" and the "Huffington Scratching Post,"
One of the reasons why I'm so successful is that I'm incredibly detail-oriented. When I'm watching a movie, nothing gets past me. Like the other day, I was sitting down to watch a movie about the American Revolution, and one of the soldiers was wearing a scrunchie in the 1700s. Oh! Scrunchies hadn't even been invented yet. Well, let's see what's on TV today, shall we? ♪
Hmm. Haven't seen this movie yet. The Brains from Outer Space. Hmm. Ugh. What cheap side effects. And those brains, they're neon pink. Are brains even pink? One of my many fans wrote in the other day to ask the very same thing. Hello, my name's Olivia. I'm from Elgin, Illinois. My question is, are brains really pink?
My name is Gwenyle Thomas and I'm a neuroscientist. Brains really are pink, but that also has to do with the way that we perceive blood flowing through and the way that light is going to be reflecting off the tissue. And so when you take brains out of
a human body and it's not constantly surrounded by blood is going to be almost a whitish grayish color. Sometimes people refer to different parts of the brain as saying like white matter or gray matter with
Us, with humans, a lot of the times when people are talking about gray matter, they're talking about the parts of the brain that help us think and feel and move. Those are going to be the brain structures that are constantly communicating so that we could do our everyday activity.
All the parts of the brain are pretty much the same color, but you'll see some highlights in some areas. You can also see a bunch of different very obvious structures. So there's a part of the brain that kind of looks almost like leaves, like leaves off trees. There are parts of the brain that have swirls and loops. And so there's a lot of distinct features.
I think the first time I ever saw a brain, I was in college and in my research lab, my professor actually showed me a mouse brain. And I was so freaked out because I was like, oh, my goodness. And the first time I saw a human brain was when I was in college.
graduate school. And so I took a class with Dr. Leonard White and he would just bring out all these human brains and have us go through different examples of if this person had a stroke and they lost their vision in their right eye point to where that would be in the brain. And I was like, Oh my goodness, this is so cool. Um, uh,
It turns out our brains are actually a beautiful, delicate pink, covered with bright red arteries and purple veins, which are full of blood. Did you know an adult human brain weighs about three pounds? That's the same weight as nine cans of tuna. Mmm, tuna.
Anywho, I have to go write my next award-winning movie review. But before I go, did you say you wanted an autograph? Here, I always carry these professional photos of myself for just this occasion. Now, where did I put my pen?
If you like this episode, take a second to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you're like me and you get easily irritated, check out the Brains On podcast where we have a whole episode all about why siblings annoy each other. If you have a moment of question, we'd love to help you answer it. Drop us a line by going to brainson.org slash contact. See you next time and the next day and every weekday. Until then, I'm...
Scrunchies, can you believe it?