Does Having a Big Brain Make You Smarter?

Explore the relationship between brain size and intelligence in this 55-minute lecture by Alain Goriely at Gresham College. Delve into the centuries-old scientific quest to identify what makes the human brain unique, approaching the problem from a mathematical perspective. Examine scaling laws and statistical concepts to study brain size in humans and animals, uncovering basic principles and testing hypotheses that connect intelligence to size. Learn from Alain Goriely, the Director of the Oxford Centre for Industrial and Applied Mathematics and a Fellow of the Royal Society, as he presents this introductory lecture on brain size and its potential correlation with cognitive abilities.