Carl Zimmer - More Brain Cuttings: Further Explorations of the Mind

To Grace, to whom my thoughts always turn

Text copyright by Carl Zimmer

All rights reserved.

Published by
Scott & Nix, Inc.
West th Street, Suite 1003
New York, NY 10001
www.scottandnix.com

The essays in this edition were originally published in a slightly different form in Discover , The New York Times , and Scientic American .

First electronic edition published in October, 2011.

ISBN ( PDF ) 978-1-935622-29-1
ISBN (ePub) 978-1-935622-30-7
ISBN (Kindle) 978-1-935622-31-4

More Brain Cuttings cover illustration from De humani corporis fabrica libri septem , Andreas Vesalius, 1543.

Contents

About the Author

Carl Zimmer is the author of ten books about science including A Planet of Viruses , Science Ink , Parasite Rex , Soul Made Flesh , and Microcosm . He writes frequently about science for The New York Times , National Geographic , Time , Scientic American , and Discover , where he serves as a contributing editor and writes a column about the brain. He is a two-time winner of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences Journalism Award, and the National Academies Science Communication Award. Carls blog The Loom is hosted at the Discover website ( blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom ). He lives in Connecticut with his wife Grace and their children, Charlotte and Veronica.

For more information visit carlzimmer.com .

Praise for Brain Cuttings:
Fifteen Journeys Through the Mind

Carl Zimmer takes us behind the scenes in our own heads. He has ferreted out all the most wondrous, bizarre stories and studies and served them up in this delicious, sizzling, easy-to-digest platter of neuro-goodness.

M ARY R OACH , author of Packing for Mars and Stiff

If you want to jump start your knowledge about how the brain does all those marvelous things for us like think, feel, and deal with others, read these essays. Zimmer has the rare capacity to get the science right and make it all feel like a glass of smooth bourbon.

M ICHAEL G AZZANIGA , Director for the S AGE Center for the Study of Mind at the University of California Santa Barbara, author of Human: The Science of What Makes Us Unique

These essays combine that rare blend of precision and wonder, hard-nosed reporting and nose for the poetically spooky. The brain should be very pleased to have Carl Zimmer as its scribe.

J AD A BUMRAD , host and creator of Radiolab , 2011 MacArthur Fellowship Genius Award recipient

Carl Zimmer is one of the nest science writers around. In this fascinating tour of the brain, he explores the meaning of time, the genetic tug of war between parents, the science of anesthesia and a dozen other absorbing tales of the meaty computer inside our head.

J ONAH L EHRER , author of How We Decide and Proust Was a Neuroscientist

Few writers are as clear and wide-ranging as Zimmer. In these fteen day-trips into modern neuroscience, he clears away the fog of jargon to give us a clear view of the newly discovered land.

D AVID E AGLEMAN , Baylor College of Medicine, author of Sum

Praise for Soul Made Flesh:
The Discovery of the Brain and
How It Changed the World

FascinatingthrillingZimmer has produced a top-notch work of popular science.

R OSS K ING , Los Angeles Times

[A] tour de force, eloquently and excitingly written, powerfully re-creating the atmosphere and personalities of the time, and making the science agreeably intelligible to the non-scientist.

Sunday Telegraph

Carl Zimmers illuminating book charts a fascinating chapter in the souls journey

New York Times Book Review

Zimmers prose is wonderfully lucid, his curiosity wide.

Daily Telegraph

For anyone interested in the history of medicine it is a must read.

British Medical Journal

Praise for A Planet of Viruses

[A]ccomplishes in a mere pages what other authors struggle to do in : He reshapes our understanding of the hidden realities at the core of everyday existence.

Washington Post

Carl Zimmer is one of the best science writers we have today. A Planet of Viruses is an important primer on the viruses living within and around all of ussometimes funny, other times shocking, and always accessible. Whether discussing the common cold and u, little-known viruses that attack bacteria or protect oceans, or the worlds viral future as seen through our encounters with HIV or SARS , Zimmers writing is lively, knowledgeable, and graced with poetic touches.

R EBECCA S KLOOT , author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Absolutely top-drawer popular science writing.

Booklist (Starred Review)

Im a serious fan of Carl Zimmer, and A Planet of Viruses provided a new treat. Its thoughtful, precise, and engrossing, page by page. Zimmer has an uncanny ability to tell cool tales about nature that leave you with new thoughts and understanding, always keeping precisely to the science.

R ICHARD P RESTON , author of The Hot Zone

This little book will interest anyone on this planet who has ever played host to a virus. It is beautifully clear, eminently sensible, and fascinating from beginning to endlike everything Carl Zimmer writes. I dont know how Zimmer does it! Neither does anyone else who follows and enjoys his work.

J ONATHAN W EINER , author of Long for This World

Praise for Microcosm:
E. coli and the New Science of Life

Superbquietly revolutionary.

The Boston Globe

This is a thought-provoking book that wrenches us from our human-centred perspective and gives us a guide to life through the chemical-sensing molecules of a species that was here long before we were, and which will certainly outlive us.

The Guardian

Microcosm is exciting, original and wholly persuasive of the beauty and utility of looking at the largest of issues from the smallest perspectives.

New Scientist

From Victorian England to contemporary America, creationists have often denied that we are related to other primates. But the hard truth of our genealogy does even greater damage to human pride. We are cousins of every living thing, including the billions of E. coli bacteria in our intestines. This kinship may not be attering, but it is useful. By studying these tiny creatures, we learn about other organisms, including ourselves. As the French biologist Jacques Monod once said, What is true for E. coli is true for the elephant. Carl Zimmer effectively applies this principle in his engrossing new book, Microcosm , relating the study of these microbes to larger developments in biology and thoughtfully discussing the social implications of science.

New York Times Book Review

Microcosm is a bracing read. This timely book deserves shelf space near Lewis Thomas classic, Lives of a Cell .

Cleveland Plain Dealer

Written in elegant, even poetic prose, Zimmers well-crafted exploration should be required reading for all well-educated readers.

Publishers Weekly

Its creepy, mind-twisting, and delightful all at the same time.

S TEVEN J OHNSON , author of The Ghost Map and Mind Wide Open

Praise for Parasite Rex

With Parasite Rex , Zimmer proves himself as ne a science essayist as we have.

The New York Times Book Review

Parasite Rex is a book capable of changing how we see the world.

Los Angeles Times

A great bookRead Parasite Rex . Read it twice.

Science

Superba non-stop delight.

New Scientist

Extensively researched and written in captivating, fast-moving style, Parasite Rex is a masterful account of creatures that youd like to ignore but who are simply too creepy to forget.