Body in Motion

Body in Motion

Ambience: neural activity

According to many ancient traditions, everything in the universe is in motion. Now that includes you and me and all the activities taking place outside and inside our bodies, even our thoughts. I’m Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet. We’re listening to the electrical activity of brain cells, translated into sound.

Berman: Everything in our bodies are moving even when we’re sitting still. The thoughts go through our brain 70 miles an hour.

Astronomer Bob Berman is the author of “Zoom How Everything Moves.”

Berman: There are impulses that go a lot faster than the way we think. And It’s necessary for our well being. For example, if we step outside of a tent and we’re camping in the summer and we feel something that feels an awful lot like a snake under our feet, we want to yank our foot up really quickly. And if we flail our hands around ourselves as rapidly as we can, we’re always aware of where our hands are in the moment, no matter how fast we move them. So that tells us that those impulses must be traveling ver much faster than our thinking processes. As a matter of fact, they move at 250 miles an hour.

Even the speed of our outer movements seems to be regulated by an inner mechanism.

Berman: Probably the thing we do most unconsciously is walking, as we take each step and we swing our arms back and forth, just like any weight on a string bobs back and forth and has a natural resonance, depending opon the length of the string. The length of our bones in our legs really determines our natural walking rate, which for most people is two steps in three seconds.

We’ll hear more about movement and vibration in future programs. Pulse of the Planet is made possible in part by the National Science Foundation and Virginia Tech, inventing the future through a hands-on approach to education and research.

Body in Motion

Thoughts move through our brain at the speed of 70 miles an hour.
Air Date:10/19/2016
Scientist:
Transcript:

Body in Motion

Ambience: neural activity

According to many ancient traditions, everything in the universe is in motion. Now that includes you and me and all the activities taking place outside and inside our bodies, even our thoughts. I'm Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet. We're listening to the electrical activity of brain cells, translated into sound.

Berman: Everything in our bodies are moving even when we're sitting still. The thoughts go through our brain 70 miles an hour.

Astronomer Bob Berman is the author of "Zoom How Everything Moves."

Berman: There are impulses that go a lot faster than the way we think. And It's necessary for our well being. For example, if we step outside of a tent and we're camping in the summer and we feel something that feels an awful lot like a snake under our feet, we want to yank our foot up really quickly. And if we flail our hands around ourselves as rapidly as we can, we're always aware of where our hands are in the moment, no matter how fast we move them. So that tells us that those impulses must be traveling ver much faster than our thinking processes. As a matter of fact, they move at 250 miles an hour.

Even the speed of our outer movements seems to be regulated by an inner mechanism.

Berman: Probably the thing we do most unconsciously is walking, as we take each step and we swing our arms back and forth, just like any weight on a string bobs back and forth and has a natural resonance, depending opon the length of the string. The length of our bones in our legs really determines our natural walking rate, which for most people is two steps in three seconds.

We'll hear more about movement and vibration in future programs. Pulse of the Planet is made possible in part by the National Science Foundation and Virginia Tech, inventing the future through a hands-on approach to education and research.