• Question: If our brains are just a mishmash of biochemistry, how come chemicals like gasoline or bug spray can't think?

    Asked by bubulis to Aggelos, Andrew, Eileen, Naomi, Shane on 14 Nov 2012.
    • Photo: Naomi Elster

      Naomi Elster answered on 14 Nov 2012:

      Because the “mishmash” is highly complicated and very well evolved. It’s not just about the chemicals, but about how they combine and communicate, and that is decided by the activities of our brain nerves and muscles which push certain chemicals together and keep other chemicals separate. Our brain is a living thing and the chemicals in our brain are part of that – dopamine and serotonin couldn’t thik by themselves outside the brain any more than gasoline or bug spray can.

    • Photo: Andrew Jackson

      Andrew Jackson answered on 14 Nov 2012:

      niaomi’s answer is great. Brains are an amazing thing. Their abilities are much greater than the sum of the individual cells that make them. Even putting that many cells together, and wiring them up in a similar way might not guarantee having a conscious thinking being. Its one of the huge wonders of science, and one that we are getting closer and closer to answering. The beauty of science is that there is always more to discover and new questions like this get asked and eventually answered all the time.

    • Photo: Eileen Diskin

      Eileen Diskin answered on 14 Nov 2012:

      Well, because the chemicals in our brains are ‘biochemistry’, like you say. Biochemistry means that they’re chemicals that occur in living organisms. These chemicals are very well organised into cells, which are organised into tissues, organs, and more – in our bodies and in our brains.

      The chemicals in things like gasoline and bug spray aren’t the kinds associated with life, because they’re not organised in the right way – and only things that are alive can think.

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