Brainology
The Curious Science of Our Minds
Emma Young author Will Storr author Lucy Maddox author Gaia Vince author Alex O'Brien author John Osbourne author Shayla Love author Srinath Perur author
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Canbury Press
Published:31st May '18
Should be back in stock very soon
16 revealing stories about the human brain.
Ever wondered how Scandinavians cope with 24-hour darkness, why we feel pain - or whether smartphones really make children stupid?
Have you heard about the US army's research into supercharging minds?
You need some Brainology. Written for Wellcome, the health charity, these stories follow doctors as they solve the puzzle of our emotions, nerves and behaviour.
Discover fascinating and intriguing stories from the world of science.
Contents
Ouch! The science of pain - John Walsh
Why doctors are reclaiming LSD and ecstasy - Sam Wong
Inside the mind of an interpreter - Geoff Watts
How should we deal with dark winters? - Linda Geddes
Smartphones won’t* make your kids dumb (*Probably) - Olivia Solon
You can train your mind into ‘receiving’ medicine - Jo Marchant
Charting the phenomenon of deep grief - Andrea Volpe
The mirror cure for phantom limb pain - Srinath Perur
Can you think yourself into a different person? - Will Storr
How to survive a troubled childhood - Lucy Maddox
What tail-chasing dogs reveal about humans - Shayla Love
A central nervous solution to arthritis - Gaia Vince
Could virtual reality headsets relieve pain? - Jo Marchant
What it means to be homesick in the 21st Century - John Osborne Lighting up brain tumours with Project Violet - Alex O'Brien
The US military plan to supercharge brains - Emma Young
EXTRACT
Ouch! The science of pain.
John Walsh
One night in May, my wife sat up in bed and said, ‘I’ve got this awful pain just here.’ She prodded her abdomen and made a face. ‘It feels like something’s really wrong.’ Woozily noting that it was 2am, I asked what kind of pain it was. ‘Like something’s biting into me and won’t stop,’ she said.
‘Hold on,’ I said blearily, ‘help is at hand.’ I brought her a couple of ibuprofen with some water, which she downed, clutching my hand and waiting for the ache to subside.
An hour later, she was sitting up in bed again,...
'A companion to Bodyology, Brainology consists of articles originally published on the Mosaic Science website and funded by medical charity Wellcome. These are well-written, professional articles: if you hit on a topic that interest you, it's very easy to be sucked in.
Because I'm not a great fan of medical journalism, I was less interested by topics such as 'the nerve cure for arthritis' and 'you can train your body to receive medicine.' However, some of the other articles really rewarded my read: for example, 'How should we deal with dark winters' and (despite the 'doctor' word) 'How doctors are reclaiming LSD', which was genuinely interesting on the history of attempts to use LSD and MDMA for medical purposes (though perhaps a little light on the deaths allegedly caused by the latter).
For me, though, the standout article was 'What tail-chasing dogs reveal about humans', which uses studies of the compulsive behaviour of dogs to try to get insights into OCD. If I'm honest, I wasn't very interested in the human side, but the idea that dogs could have such behaviour - one dog, for example, apparently had to put seven pieces of food into recesses in a couch before eating - was fascinating.
In reviewing Bodyology, I complained about the over-heavy use of 'true life stories'. This is also the case with Brainology, though more of them here are first person, which tend to have less of the over-dramatised wording. Perhaps because of limiting the book to a single organ - even one as interesting as the brain - though, I found there were fewer stories that really grabbed me. However, the ones that did were superb.
As with Bodyology, it's a great collection to dip into for a single item as a quick read - though it's very tempting then to read just one more. And another. Makes a potentially heavy topic approachable and fascinating.' -- BRIAN CLEGG, SCIENCE WRITER
ISBN: 9781912454006
Dimensions: 198mm x 129mm x 19mm
Weight: 240g
272 pages