Read more
Zusatztext "A thumping good read." -- Timothy Ferris, author of The Whole Shebang and Coming of Age in the Milky Way Informationen zum Autor Carl Zimmer, author of At the Water's Edge, is a frequent contributor to Discover, National Geographic, Natural History, Nature, and Science. He is a winner of the Everett Clark Award for science journalism and the American Institute of Biological Sciences Media Award. A John S. Guggenheim Fellow, he has also received the Pan-American Health Organization Award for Excellence in International Health Reporting and the American Institute of Biological Sciences Media Award. His previous books include Evolution: The Triumph of an Idea , Parasite Rex , and At the Water's Edge . He lives in Guilford, Connecticut. Klappentext The untold story of a turning point in modern history--how the brain was discovered to be the seat of human consciousness--from an author The "New York Times" calls "as fine a science writer as we have, in the company of David Quammen and John McPhee." Zusammenfassung In this unprecedented history of a scientific revolution, award-winning author and journalist Carl Zimmer tells the definitive story of the dawn of the age of the brain and modern consciousness. Told here for the first time, the dramatic tale of how the secrets of the brain were discovered in seventeenth-century England unfolds against a turbulent backdrop of civil war, the Great Fire of London, and plague. At the beginning of that chaotic century, no one knew how the brain worked or even what it looked like intact. But by the century's close, even the most common conceptions and dominant philosophies had been completely overturned, supplanted by a radical new vision of man, God, and the universe. Presiding over the rise of this new scientific paradigm was the founder of modern neurology, Thomas Willis, a fascinating, sympathetic, even heroic figure at the center of an extraordinary group of scientists and philosophers known as the Oxford circle. Chronicled here in vivid detail are their groundbreaking revelations and the often gory experiments that first enshrined the brain as the physical seat of intelligence -- and the seat of the human soul. Soul Made Flesh conveys a contagious appreciation for the brain, its structure, and its many marvelous functions, and the implications for human identity, mind, and morality. Inhaltsverzeichnis Table of ContentsIntroduction: A Bowl of CurdsChapter One: Hearts and Minds, Livers and Stomachs? Greeks explore the soul, puzzle over the brain, and embrace the heart? Christians build a soul from ancient parts? Natural philosophy is born and anatomy becomes a sacred art? Vesalius discovers monkeys where men once stood? The Greeks are transformed, the soul questionedChapter Two: World Without Soul? Anatomy of the cosmos? Galileo's new sky? Marin Mersenne makes the world a machine? Pierre Gassendi sanctifies the atom? Descartes's anatomy of clear ideas? The human body as earthen machine? The soul climbs into its cockpit? An arrest? The perfect argument? The ice queen makes Descartes an offer? The captive leaves its prisonChapter Three: Make Motion Cease? Thomas Willis with the beasts of the field? Protestants and Puritans? The divine right of kings and the complaints of Parliament? God and Aristotle at Oxford? Servant and alchemist? Mystical medicine comes to EnglandChapter Four: The Broken Heart of the Republic? Charles I stumbles toward war? Fever swings its scythe? Portrait of a physician as a young man? Willis fights for his king? Oxford dark and nasty? William Harvey under siege? Harvey at the school of Aristotle? Harvey finds the soul in the blood and says little about the brain? Harvey discovers the circle of blood? Oliver Cromwell tightens the noose? Surrender to madnessChapter Five: Pisse-Prophets Among the Puritans? Thomas Willis returns? Medicine in the marketplace? Ferment...
