Why the insect brain is so incredible - Anna Stöckl

The human brain is one of the most sophisticated organs in the world, a supercomputer made of billions of neurons that control all of our senses, thoughts, and actions. But there was something Charles Darwin found even more impressive: the brain of an ant, which he called “one of the most marvelous atoms of matter in the world.” Anna Stöckl takes us inside the tiny but mighty insect brain.

Lesson by Anna Stöckl, animation by Studio Gal Shkedi.

[monkeydetonation]

The fly may outsmart me, however it can't outsmart a window

[jakejakeboom]

Insect brains are the PIC microcontroller to our Intel Xeon, it's really amazing what they can do with so few resources. Makes you think about what a brain really is.

[TEDEd]

Hi everybody!

For Earth Day next week, we're making a special gif featuring EVERY SINGLE SPINNING EARTH we've ever animated. We know there are a lot, but we have so many videos that we're finding it hard to search through all of them fast enough. So we thought we'd put the challenge to the crowd. Can you all help us find all of the TED-Ed spinning Earths, across all of our animations?

If you find one, please comment with both the lesson title and a link, preferably to the moment with the Earth (for example, "The Sun’s surprising movement across the sky,

We'll be publishing the GIF on our tumblr (teded.tumblr.com) next week. And we'll include a special thank you to anyone who helps (If you have a tumblr handle and want us to @ you, include that in your comment too)!

[Samuftie]

"The human brain is one of the most sophisticated organs in the world" - thought and written by the brain.

[cooldudeg]

Yes, let's marvel at the astounding efficiency and intelligence of a fly as it bashes itself stupid on my bedroom window.

[ketfoen]

last part made me smile about the fly. He might out smart me once and escape my swatting hand, but no way will he escape my flyswatter lol.

[billymcilvian]

Birds, bats, and bees also evolved to start with the letter b.

[zannatul]

I broke the entire wall yet the fly couldn't leave the room
lol

[arvindian]

animation is really great.
keep up the good work

[ndrdst]

The animations in conjunction with the videography is wonderful!

[amaliasilva]

Boy, I love the way he says “scratch itself”. It’s soothing...♥️♥️♥️♥️

[xjoy]

hey Mr. Narrator.

I like your voice

[spliter]

Tha animation on pthis is adorable. Would love to see more from her in the future!

[udtheaesir]

Great animation! I'm definitely curious what effects psychedelics might have on insect brains. Will they perceive the same things we usually do under the effects?

[mohammedsami]

that swedish scientist was screaming in the grave because insects got revenge from him for saying they dont have brain, poor man .so is that a nature chain or its karma ?

[Rome]

It's interesting. I'm sure that they are smarter than what we give them credit for . Some would say it's just instinct though . However after watching my monarch caterpillars for quite a few years I'm sure they are using their tiny brains to a certain extent and it is more than just instinct. I have seen them actually nut things out while crawling along the plant they are on ..

[Teth]

The fly is just smaller and thus able to react faster.

Interestingly, I noticed that houseflies tend to fly almost exclusively in 2D arcs, or simple composited of 2D arcs, which massively reduces the number of possible paths a fly might take. I can pick the most likely one based on a few seconds of observation and put my hand there, I catch flies pretty often.

We have clusterflies where I live. They show up by the thousands, I could probably fill a large trash bag with the amount of flies I vacuum up in the summer.

Don't live on a farm.

[chrono-glitchwaterlily]

I found a wasp sitting on my window. It was just resting there, but when I opened the window, it immediately knew it was opened. Know that the wasp was resting at a place where the wind couldn't sense the outside world

[Kanzu]

I wonder what it's like to be an insect. How sentient are they? Can we only guess about this, or do we actually have strong evidence to suggest what it's like? And how different are their intellects? Are bees for example smarter than flies or ants? All of this is quite fascinating, especially when considering how much moral value we should really give to insects.

[ekoy]

Brief, concise, fun and informative.
What a marvelous video.
Thank you so much TED-ed