Were you aware your brain, the most...

Were you aware your brain, the most complex organ in your body, only weighs about 3 pounds but encases more than 100 billion nerve cells? Were you aware that March 12-18 is Brain Awareness Week?

* Brain Awareness Week, launched in 1996, is co-sponsored by the Society for Neuroscience and the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives. Its goal is to spur public awareness of brain and nervous system research.

* Neuroscience has made great progress in understanding the brain and treating brain and nervous system disorders that affect an estimated 50 million Americans each year. Researchers have learned more about the brain in the last 10 years than in all of the previous century. Stroke, spinal cord injury, chronic pain, learning disabilities and depression are just some of the conditions being studied by neuroscientists. Economic costs for brain-related diseases and injuries are estimated to exceed half a trillion dollars a year.

* In an effort to increase awareness of your brain, the Footnotes staff has compiled a list of quotes regarding this great organ:

“The brain is like a muscle. When it is in use, we feel very good.”--Carl Sagan.

“The brain is a wonderful organ. It starts working the moment you get up in the morning and does not stop until you get into the office.”--Robert Frost

“If the brain were so simple we could understand it, we would be so simple we couldn’t.”--Lyall Watson

“A full tongue and an empty brain are seldom parted.”--Francis Quarles

“BRAIN, n. An apparatus with which we think what we think. That which distinguishes the man who is content to be something from the man who wishes to do something.”--Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary

Bullwinkle: “You just leave that to my pal. He’s the brains of the outfit.” General: “What does that make you?” Bullwinkle: “What else? An executive . . . “--Jay Ward

Have a happy Brain Awareness Week!