Do you belive that brains are the most important thing to be studying now-a-days?

Question: Do you belive that brains are the most important thing to be studying now-a-days?
- Keywords:
  brain,
  important,
  now,
  present,
  research,
  study
Asked by cocoonut to Damien, Rachael, Simon, Suzi, Tim on 16 Jun 2011.
- Suzi Gage answered on 13 Jun 2011:
  
  Hi @cocoonut
  Thanks for the question.
  I don’t necessarily think brains are the most important thing! But I think they are AN important thing, and it’s a kind of science that I can do well, which is why I decided to do the research I’m doing.
  
  Also, I’m more interested in what the brain makes us do, than the brain itself per se 🙂
  
  Hope this answers your question!
- Tim Fosker answered on 13 Jun 2011:
  
  Hi @cocoonut
  
  I think studying how brains work and let us to do the things we do is one of the most ‘interesting’ things to study. However, it may not be the most important. Clearly finding a cure for cancer is very important research, but much of this research doesn’t go anywhere without scientists studying the basics of how cells grow. When I ask a question, I’m not always sure what I will find. I expect something, but I’m not always right. Surprise findings can be very important and lead other scientists to finding cures based on the work you did. Studying the brain is definitely very important, but there are also many other worthwhile research areas.
- Rachael Ward answered on 13 Jun 2011:
  
  Hello,
  
  Like Tim and Suzi, I’m biased so find the brain the most interesting thing to study. It is also important but I think it would be unfair of me to say its The Most Important! Everything has its use right?
  
  Understanding the brain is important for a lot of reasons but just focusing on “now-a-days”, we are living for longer now than we ever have before. As the brain ages, neurons can “degenerate” and don’t work as well and this leads to what we call age-related neurodegenerative diseases. These include Alzheimers and other dementias and Parkinsons disease. As there are more elderly people now, there are unfortunately more people suffering from these age-related diseases. A big challenge for neuroscience at the moment is to try to find treatments for these diseases and this will become more and more important as we live longer and longer.
- Damien Hall answered on 16 Jun 2011:
  
  Here’s a classic University answer: “It depends what you mean by ‘brain’”! What I mean by that is that two people who both say they work on the brain can be working on very different things. So, I work on the brain because without a brain you would have no language, but it’s only very abstract because I never actually SEE any brains in my work. Simon cuts up brains and looks at them physically. Other people look at brain injuries, or the effect of certain substances on the brain. So we’re all doing very different things, but somehow we all work on the brain.
  So I think, if you look at it like that, the brain IS a very important thing to be studying, because without doing that you couldn’t study language, or attitudes, or mental illnesses, or brain tissue, or etc… etc… etc… – see what I mean?

Question: Do you belive that brains are the most important thing to be studying now-a-days?

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