Indian Man Missing More Than Half of His Brain

India is known for its population issues, not its green thumb. Most of the major cities in India have been under scrutiny because of the extreme amount of pollution they exhibit. It’s unreal to understand how many people per square foot there are in this country. Their lack of population control has been under debate for years. Lately, many people have been leaving India because there simply is no room to live. 

Today the country is in the headlines because of that though. India has planted about 50 million trees in the past 24 hours in efforts to reshape the geological landscape of the country. The smog and pollution in India has been a huge issue as of late. 50 million trees have been planted, and they broke the record for most trees planted in a single 24 hour period.

The even happened in Uttar Pradesh. It’s one of India’s most highly populated areas. More than 800,000 people gathered to help make the country greener. It didn’t matter the gender or social standing of these people. They all gathered in an attempt to make the world a better and greener place.

Pakistan used to hold this record when they planted nearly 900,000 trees in 2013. The trees were from 950 different nurseries in and around India. To increase variety and the likelihood that the trees would survive in the climate, different seeds had to be planted in similar plots.

The Guinness Book of World Records Committee crowned India the new title holder for most trees planted in a certain amount of time. The event brought awareness to the Indian government’s plan to make the region green again. The Paris Climate Change talks had a great impact on the country who eventually started to feel guilty for their solution and waste. They ended up putting aside 5.2 billion dollars to complete the project, and used lots of volunteers to help as well. 

The pollution stems from the country’s massive population. Most people live virtually on top of each other in most of India’s major cities. The effects of global climate change have been heavily placed on India due to their loose regulatory laws and high rates of pollution.

Hopefully this will be the beginning of an era where India is known as a bit greener and less harsh on the environment. Their lack of population control and regulations has been widely criticized in the media and by world leaders. Don’t be fooled, this is as much as a political move as it is an environmental one. This serious effort to reduce the carbon emissions of India is a welcome change to their normal ways. Hopefully millions of people in Delhi, Raipur and Patna will be safer. The risk for serious diseases in these areas is extremely high due to the pollution and gasses emitted by animals and people in the region. Serious cardiac disease spikes have been reported in most major Indian cities. It’s a shame really.

This effort is welcome, and many world leaders hope that it will help the major cities in India become more clean and safe to live in.

Consciousness is a widely debated concept in science and in life. Earlier this year a French man who was in his mid 40’s baffled scientists. He walked into a clinic complaining of pain in his leg. Apparently he had a similar issue in his childhood because of an issue with is brain filling up with cerebrospinal fluid. When doctors scanned they noticed something shocking. His brain was nearly all fluid. This left a thin cortical layer of neurons and they were astonished that he was even able to be fully conscious. 

His ventricles were so swollen with fluid that they had taken over his brain. This man lived a rich and full life despite the fact that he wasn’t always fully conscious. He had a full time job and a wife and kids. Nobody understood that he had a big, gaping hole in his brain. It was absolutely nuts. Key brain regions were completely turned off. Some neurons weren’t even firing due to the fluid that leaked inside and started to corrode it. This made neuroscientists of all kinds call the anatomy and functions of the brain into question. It also raised some concerns about how we study the brain and what its many functions can be.

The thalamus has largely been understood to relay sensory signals to the bigger part of our brain, the cerebral cortex. This piece of matter is essential to keep us functioning, awake and moreover, conscious. Research makes it easy to understand that damage to these key areas can lead to increased lack of motor function and even damage to the brain. The life altering traumatic brain injuries that people sustain in accidents mostly stem from damage to these areas as well. When people fall into a coma, the thalamus is the part of the brain that is effected directly.

The fact that this Frenchman was able to walk, talk and complain of pain was extraordinary. For all intents and purposes he was basically sleeping…or that’s what the brain scans said. The origins of his condition are unknown, but it’s clear that more research had to be done.

Radical Plastic Theory was the result of that research. The theory suggests that the brain continually reflects on itself to become more and more aware of basic functions. Basically, the brain copies itself and later in life it develops autopilot sensibilities. It’s said that this man’s brain copied its own functions, so that when there was a problem, the brain was smart enough to copy the necessary signals and information to keep it functioning normally. A whole host of questions were unable to be answered, but the nature of consciousness is a bit clearer after this case study. At last people understood what happened to the Frenchman and were able to get him the help he needed for his aches and pains.