One million members, one million researchers, one million brains.

A pretty smart guy once said: ‘it is good to rub and polish our brain against that of others’. - Michel de Montaigne

We think these are wise words indeed.

Today marks a milestone in the history of ResearchGate: over one million users are now networking, collaborating and sharing knowledge through our platform.

To connect one million people is to connect the potential of one million brains. One lone brain is already quite impressive; as proof we decided to put together a few facts on what it can do and what makes it tick:

• Our brains experience on average 70,000 thoughts each day.  Imagine that.

• A brain generates around 20 watts of power daily. That’s about enough to power a light bulb. Or a lot of ideas.

• 750 - 1,000 ml of blood flow through the brain every minute. You could fill 3 soda cans with all that. But it probably wouldn’t be as nice as a cold cola.

• There are 100,000 miles of blood vessels in the brain. About enough to circle the earth three times. Could get a bit messy though.

• 100 billion neurons go into making our brain what it is. Roughly the same amount as there are stars in our galaxy. That’s pretty mind-blowing.

If this is just one brain, imagine what one million could do together.

1,000,000 is a big number.  And we’re just getting started.