by Michael S. Gazzaniga ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 3, 2015
A lively appreciation of both the complexity of the human mind and the scientific enterprise.
“How on earth does the brain enable mind?” That is the still-to-be-answered question posed by Gazzaniga (Who's in Charge: Free Will and the Science of the Brain, 2011, etc.), the director of the SAGE Center for the Study of Mind at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
In this scientific memoir, the author chronicles his 50-year career at the forefront of research and “the scientific saga” in which he still plays a part. “I have come to realize the great extent to which my own march through life has been influenced by others,” he writes, “…and how we scientists are all a composite of both scientific and nonscientific experiences.” His own scientific journey began as a graduate student at Caltech, where the hot topic was “split brain research [on animals] which was trying to find out if each hemisphere of the brain could learn independently from the other.” His focus became the study of epileptic patients who underwent similar surgery to control intractable seizures, and he describes his stunning realization that his first human subject's “right brain completed an act of which his own left hemisphere had no knowledge.” In effect, two separate minds were functioning in the same body. Though they could not communicate directly, over time, they developed indirect ways of cueing each other. Gazzaniga describes how this discovery paved the way for understanding how normal brains use modular processes that work in parallel to process information and come to decisions. The author writes warmly of the people who shared in his discoveries and his many friendships. In a foreword, Steven Pinker pays tribute to Gazzaniga not only for his scientific achievements, “midwifing the field of cognitive neuroscience, but…for showing that science is compatible with all the other good things in life.”
A lively appreciation of both the complexity of the human mind and the scientific enterprise.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-222880-2
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ecco/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2014
Share your opinion of this book
More by Michael S. Gazzaniga
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
by Lulu Miller illustrated by Kate Samworth ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 14, 2020
A quirky wonder of a book.
A Peabody Award–winning NPR science reporter chronicles the life of a turn-of-the-century scientist and how her quest led to significant revelations about the meaning of order, chaos, and her own existence.
Miller began doing research on David Starr Jordan (1851-1931) to understand how he had managed to carry on after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake destroyed his work. A taxonomist who is credited with discovering “a full fifth of fish known to man in his day,” Jordan had amassed an unparalleled collection of ichthyological specimens. Gathering up all the fish he could save, Jordan sewed the nameplates that had been on the destroyed jars directly onto the fish. His perseverance intrigued the author, who also discusses the struggles she underwent after her affair with a woman ended a heterosexual relationship. Born into an upstate New York farm family, Jordan attended Cornell and then became an itinerant scholar and field researcher until he landed at Indiana University, where his first ichthyological collection was destroyed by lightning. In between this catastrophe and others involving family members’ deaths, he reconstructed his collection. Later, he was appointed as the founding president of Stanford, where he evolved into a Machiavellian figure who trampled on colleagues and sang the praises of eugenics. Miller concludes that Jordan displayed the characteristics of someone who relied on “positive illusions” to rebound from disaster and that his stand on eugenics came from a belief in “a divine hierarchy from bacteria to humans that point[ed]…toward better.” Considering recent research that negates biological hierarchies, the author then suggests that Jordan’s beloved taxonomic category—fish—does not exist. Part biography, part science report, and part meditation on how the chaos that caused Miller’s existential misery could also bring self-acceptance and a loving wife, this unique book is an ingenious celebration of diversity and the mysterious order that underlies all existence.
A quirky wonder of a book.Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5011-6027-1
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 1, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
Share your opinion of this book
by Carlo Rovelli ; translated by Simon Carnell & Erica Segre ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2016
An intriguing meditation on the nature of the universe and our attempts to understand it that should appeal to both...
Awards & Accolades
Our Verdict
GET IT
Kirkus Reviews'
Best Books Of 2016
New York Times Bestseller
Italian theoretical physicist Rovelli (General Relativity: The Most Beautiful of Theories, 2015, etc.) shares his thoughts on the broader scientific and philosophical implications of the great revolution that has taken place over the past century.
These seven lessons, which first appeared as articles in the Sunday supplement of the Italian newspaper Sole 24 Ore, are addressed to readers with little knowledge of physics. In less than 100 pages, the author, who teaches physics in both France and the United States, cogently covers the great accomplishments of the past and the open questions still baffling physicists today. In the first lesson, he focuses on Einstein's theory of general relativity. He describes Einstein's recognition that gravity "is not diffused through space [but] is that space itself" as "a stroke of pure genius." In the second lesson, Rovelli deals with the puzzling features of quantum physics that challenge our picture of reality. In the remaining sections, the author introduces the constant fluctuations of atoms, the granular nature of space, and more. "It is hardly surprising that there are more things in heaven and earth, dear reader, than have been dreamed of in our philosophy—or in our physics,” he writes. Rovelli also discusses the issues raised in loop quantum gravity, a theory that he co-developed. These issues lead to his extraordinary claim that the passage of time is not fundamental but rather derived from the granular nature of space. The author suggests that there have been two separate pathways throughout human history: mythology and the accumulation of knowledge through observation. He believes that scientists today share the same curiosity about nature exhibited by early man.
An intriguing meditation on the nature of the universe and our attempts to understand it that should appeal to both scientists and general readers.Pub Date: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-399-18441-3
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Riverhead
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2015
Share your opinion of this book
More by Carlo Rovelli
BOOK REVIEW
by Carlo Rovelli ; translated by Simon Carnell
BOOK REVIEW
by Carlo Rovelli ; translated by Marion Lignana Rosenberg
BOOK REVIEW
by Carlo Rovelli ; translated by Erica Segre & Simon Carnell
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.