A few words about ideas, brains and Michael Mosley

In my head I often have several themes running. They race together at times, squabble and argue at times too, or run alongside each other blissfully aware of each others presence. And of course one wins the argument sometimes and becomes the dominant horse, running for its life with the finishing post firmly set in its sights. The brain is a wonderfully magical mysterious thing! There has been a great programme on at the moment with Michael Mosley called "The Brain - a Secret History" that’s been so fascinating. I like him immensely as his enthusiasm comes pouring from the screen, but also he explains things that even I understand. You have to know at school I was complete pants at science. I loved the dissection in Biology, the experiments in Chemistry, especially if they involved any kind of bang, and sadly Physics left me floundering except in my ability to make lovely diagrams. The frustrating thing about these subjects is that if you just don’t get it, you just don’t get it and that added up to a great many hours of frustration. Anything arty or the pursuit of words then I was in my element. Anything else and my switch off button was firmly on!

And so to the programme on the brain. There was shot this week of what looked like a very fresh one. Soft and squishy and like a slightly hardened blancmange, it was a thing of indescribable beauty. It made me think of the limitless complexity of making just our limbs move, and then to of all the thoughts, the memories, the ability to change and grow and encapsulate everything that we are. The brain is an unbelievable organ.