Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body's Most Underrated Organ

by Giulia Enders

Daniel Wolpert is not only an engineer and medical doctor who has won many academic honors, he is also a scientist who believes the sea squirt’s attitude to having a brain is very significant. His theory is that the only reason for having a brain is to enable movement. On first hearing, that might sound like an annoyingly mundane statement. But perhaps we just consider the wrong things mundane. Movement is the most extraordinary thing ever developed by living creatures. There is no other reason for having muscles, no other reason for having nerves in those muscles, and probably no other reason for having a brain. Everything that has ever been done in the history of humankind was only possible because we are able to move. Movement is not just walking or throwing a ball. It is also pulling faces, uttering words, and putting plans into action. Our brain coordinates its senses and creates experience in order to produce movement: movement of the mouth or the hands, movement over many miles or over just a few inches. Sometimes, we can also influence the world around us by suppressing movement. But if you’re a tree and can’t choose whether you move or not, you don’t need a brain.