A monumental, sweeping journey from the ancient roots of neurology to the most astonishing recent research
Matthew Cobb is Professor of Zoology at the University of Manchester where his research focuses on the sense of smell, insect behaviour, and the history of science. In 2008, he won the Zoological Society of London award for Communicating Science. His previous books include Life's Greatest Secret:The Race to Discover the Genetic Code, which was shortlisted for the the Royal Society Winton Book Prize, and the acclaimed histories The Resistance: The French Fight against the Nazis and Eleven Days in August: The Liberation of Paris in 1944. He is also the award-winning translator of books on the history of molecular biology, on Darwin's ideas and on the nature of life.
An intellectual tour de force, and a brilliant demonstration of how
a historical approach is often the best way of explaining difficult
scientific problems ... Cobb combines scholarship with clarity to a
remarkable degree ... For anybody who wants to understand the
depths of our understanding of our brains, and our even deeper
ignorance, I cannot recommend this book strongly enough.
*New Statesman*
Sweeping and electrifyingly sceptical
*Sunday Times*
A truly terrific work and a wonderful read. The best book produced
in my lifetime on the brain.
*Richard C Atkinson, President Emeritus, University of
California*
Cobb is a rare jewel. [The Idea of the Brain] is a typically
erudite, thrilling and thorough exploration of the most complex
thing in the known universe.
*the Week*
Rich and fascinating
*Guardian*
An engrossing journey through the centuries ... Cobb explores
memory, circuits, computers, chemistry, localization of function
and consciousness. In clear and lively prose, he introduces us to
the characters, personalities, and debates of each era ... The
reader will come away from this illuminating history of thinking
about the brain with a renewed appreciation of the task that
remains ... in the final section Mr. Cobb offers glimmers of the
dazzling possibilities.
*Wall Street Journal*
Ambitious intellectual history ... It is a very good book
*Nature*
Enthralling
*Times Higher Education*
Fascinating ... instructive
*New Scientist*
Cobb's erudition and engaging writing style take us on an
enthralling journey
*Science*
A riveting account of brain research, our current knowledge, and
problems yet to be solved
*Kirkus Reviews*
If you know nothing about neuroscience and need to get up to speed
fast ... try this brilliant offering, in which zoologist and
science historian Cobb dives into the fundamentals - and the
frontiers - of our understanding of the brain.
*Scientific American*
Captivating ... Cobb provides a refreshingly candid, accessible and
insightful tour of the ups, downs, dead ends and future prospects
of our endeavour to understand the most complex and fascinating
entity in the known universe - the brain.
*Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine*
The story of the most complex object in the universe has never been
told with greater clarity, insight and wit. Charting the route to
future discoveries, this is a masterpiece.
*author of The Book of Humans: A Brief History of Culture, Sex, War
and the Evolution of Us*
Humanity's quest to understand the brain has led us to some of our
most important ideas, but as the eminent science writer Matthew
Cobb shows in his riveting, eye-opening book, that isn't all it
gave us. In fact, the road to our hi-tech present was strewn with
brutes, eccentrics - and victims. Highly entertaining and deeply
authoritative, this is the rare science book that knows both the
value of knowledge and its price. Read it.
*author of Clear Bright Future: A Radical Defence of the Human
Being*
Thoughtful and thought-provoking, this is a book I wish I could
have written, and one that I will be thinking about for a long
time. It is a down payment for future brain research.
*editor-in-chief of the Journal of Neuroscience*
Not only is this a work of phenomenal erudition, but it has the
rare distinction among books on the brain of promoting no premature
"explanation" of how this astonishingly complicated organ does its
job. Instead, Cobb offers an honest appraisal both of what we know
and what is still a mystery. There is no better primer to one of
the most profound questions facing science today: how matter
creates thought and consciousness.
*author of How to Grow a Human: Adventures in Who We Are and How We
Are Made*
The Idea of the Brain is a superb book describing the surprising
history of research on how the Universe's most complex object
produces memories, consciousness, and volition. It is at once
deeply scholarly and engrossing, and reminds us how far our own
brains have to go before they understand their own workings.
*author of Why Evolution is True*
This fascinating history of our quest to understand the brain is
deeply researched and full of entertaining nuggets. Cobb is a
reliably sceptical but sympathetic guide to the murky world of mind
exploration, offering plenty of diverting stories along the way.
You may be no closer to understanding your brain after reading
this, but your brain will be richer for it.
*author of Transcendence: How Humans Evolved through Fire,
Language, Beauty, and Time*
This exquisitely researched and thrilling book charts an epic quest
to understand our deepest selves. Its scale and scope is
phenomenal, and it leaves us with a profound sense of wonder about
science and humanity, as well as the brain itself. Altogether a
feast.
*author of The Beautiful Cure: Harnessing Your Body’s Natural
Defences*
A scholarly and wonderfully entertaining guide to the advances that
have driven our knowledge of the brain, and the extraordinary
people who have made them.
*author of Making Up the Mind: How the Brain Creates Our Mental
World*
A masterful examination of the vast history of humans trying to
figure out how the brain does its tricks. The scope, sweep and
insight are stunning
*Michael Gazzaniga, author of The Consciousness Instinct:
Unraveling the Mystery of How the Brain Makes the Mind*
Matthew Cobb weaves a fascinating story of the historical arc of
neuroscience, from the initial discovery that the brain gives rise
to our minds, to the state of the art in the manipulation and
control of the brain.
*author of The New Mind Readers*
an accessible starting point for budding enthusiasts and students
who are curious about the field's traditions and vital questions.
Its loving erudition will also satisfy old crusty
electrophysiologists seeking a hit of nostalgia. Matthew Cobb has
captured a well-framed snapshot of a moment in time at which many
of the questions are clear but the hard work of answering them is
just getting started.
*Cell Press*
Cobb's history reveals something deep: the complex, codependent
relationships we develop with our favorite tools do more than alter
how we think. They become how we think ... a first-rate history
*LARB*
Detail-oriented ... Our knowledge of the brain [is] at once
tremendous and vanishingly slight ... Matthew Cobb topples some
common fallacies [and] aims to describe the field accurately [with
a] mixture of reserve and attentiveness
*London Review of Books*
A thrilling history of our rapidly expanding understanding of the
brain, made even better by having no theoretical axe to grind
*New Statesman Books of the Year*
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