how many gigabytes can a human brain store the brain is a spongy organ weighing just one and a half kilograms and 60% composed of fat yet it is the central computer of astonishing machines that are virtually impossible to replicate human beings naturally this raises the question how many gigabytes can a human brain store some scientists argue that the brain can store an infinite amount of data and learning new information doesn't impact on all that you remember previously good news for students who need to study for a few exams in a row but what about the last time you forgot the four-digit code for your locker all the time you forgot the name of someone you just met this seems to be a problem of data retrieval rather than storage retrieval data is something that can be trained as with been pretty more who recently managed to recall 4140 digits of binary numbers strings of numbers consisting of 1 and 0 meanwhile certain injuries can trigger so-called acquired 7 syndrome allowing some people to retrieve enormous quantities of data overnight after say an accident the brain is still one of the most unknown organs in the human body it is composed of approximately 100 billion neurons 1 billion of which are in charge of long term storage if each of these long-term neurons can store one unit of information or one byte our brain would still only hold about one gigabyte which would be full pretty quickly but wait research into the brain has revealed that memories forming into neuronal connections each neuron is connected with other neurons which are in turn connected to yet more neurons and so on and so forth this is an exponential construction with the potential for some people to build and retain immense memories this phenomena means we should be thinking of the human brain not in gigabytes 10 to the power of 9 or 1 billion bytes but more in terms of petabytes 10 to the power of 15 or million billion bytes given that in one petabyte you can store up to two hundred and twenty three thousand movies will must be carrying around with us a vast treasure trove of memories images smells noises faces and phone numbers but does it really make sense to compare the brains capacity with that of a computer Einstein himself once said never memorize something that can easily be looked up in a book only imagination truly matters he said so relax people with the big data and artificial intelligence tools now available to us let technology do the hard work and save all that human brainpower to unleash your creative side