Neuroscience Facts

The organ that processes all your pain sensations has no pain receptors itself. Surgeons can operate on a conscious patient's brain while they chat about the weather. The brain literally cannot feel itself being touched or cut.

Octopuses have three hearts—two pump blood to the gills, one pumps it to the body. Their blood is blue because it uses copper-based hemocyanin instead of iron. Each of their 8 arms has its own mini-brain that can act independently—an arm can "decide" to open a jar while the central brain focuses on something else.

Your brain runs on an 80-millisecond delay. Everything you experience has already happened. You have never perceived the present moment.