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Who's in Charge?
- Free Will and the Science of the Brain
- Narrated by: Pete Larkin
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
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Publisher's summary
The father of cognitive neuroscience and author of Human offers a provocative argument against the common belief that our lives are wholly determined by physical processes and we are therefore not responsible for our actions.
A powerful orthodoxy in the study of the brain has taken hold in recent years: Since physical laws govern the physical world and our own brains are part of that world, physical laws therefore govern our behavior and even our conscious selves. Free will is meaningless, goes the mantra; we live in a “determined” world.
Not so, argues the renowned neuroscientist Michael S. Gazzaniga in this thoughtful, provocative book based on his Gifford Lectures - one of the foremost lecture series in the world dealing with religion, science, and philosophy. Who's in Charge? proposes that the mind, which is somehow generated by the physical processes of the brain, “constrains” the brain just as cars are constrained by the traffic they create. Writing with what Steven Pinker has called “his trademark wit and lack of pretension”, Gazzaniga shows how determinism immeasurably weakens our views of human responsibility; it allows a murderer to argue, in effect, “It wasn’t me who did it - it was my brain.” Gazzaniga convincingly argues that even given the latest insights into the physical mechanisms of the mind, there is an undeniable human reality: We are responsible agents who should be held accountable for our actions, because responsibility is found in how people interact, not in brains.
An extraordinary book that ranges across neuroscience, psychology, ethics, and the law with a light touch but profound implications, Who’s in Charge? is a lasting contribution from one of the leading thinkers of our time.
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- Dan
- 04-03-12
Use Your Credit On "Who's In Charge"
For those who want to make a quick decision, just read the above headline. For those who would like to thoroughly research this book before committing, go to the FREE "Brain Science Podcast" and listen to episode # 82. (In fact, if you are at all interested in the Mind/Brain, I strongly suggest you subscribe to this Audible sponsored podcast. It led me to this wonderful world of audiobooks.)
For those in between, here is my take on it. Dr. Gazzaniga is the father of research into split brain patients (this procedure for epilepsy has been replaced by less damaging ones, so there will be little research in the future). His work seems to have heavily influenced our present understanding of the brain, and a lot of that understanding is presented in this work. While I thought I knew quite a bit for a layman, there was not one part of this book that I could skip through, all of it was engaging, even the familiar parts. While there are other books I could recommend that specialize in certain areas, "Who's In Charge" covers most of the current popular topics, such as Self, Consciousness, Free Will, and Morality and touches on Chaos Theory and Emergence. To me, there were no low points here. nor is anything too complicated for the unitiated. I cannot see anybody being disappointed in purchasing this book, and believe you could have saved time and effort, by just following the advice in the headline.
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92 people found this helpful
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- Sean
- 01-29-12
Good brain book, not really about free will
Although the author purports to address the issue of free will from a neuroscience point of view he goes off on many, many tangents and is oddly reticent to make any firm assertions.
He gives a good tour of the current state of what we understand about how the brain works. This is meant to set the stage for addressing the question of whether brain chemistry and wiring pre-determines out decisions or if free will really exists. However, although he asserts that he thinks free will exists he does not create any structured arguments to support his belief. Either he feels the evidence speaks for itself (in which case he has over-estimated his audience) or his hypothesis never crystallized in his mind.
As an experienced neuroscientist he has a masterful grasp of the subject (although I found his frequent, parenthetical comments of "so-and-so, who worked in a lab across campus from me" did not add anything to the story.) Not only does he understand what he is writing about, but he has thought deeply about the implications and he presents the material accurately.
I found the performance to be rather snarky and it distracted from the text.
The survey of current neuroscience makes the book worth reading, but I think he does a disservice to claim the book is about free will.
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63 people found this helpful
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- Timothy
- 10-25-12
Good, not great. Read Eagleman's Incognito instead
This was a good book. There were two or three really mind-blowing concepts that I hadn't heard before. But I give it fewer stars because (1) it doesn't really spend very much time on the titular question -- specifically "free will". It's really a book about how the brain works, which is really interesting to me, but this book's not as good as David Eagleman's "Incognito", in my opinion. (2) It spends quite a bit of time on how current neuroscience impacts law and courtroom proceedings. Those parts seemed repetitive and dull to me.
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37 people found this helpful
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- J. E. JORDAN
- 06-25-13
Not for Everyone, but Definitely for Some of Us
This book is not the kind of thing you want to get distracted from while listening. It's rather technical at certain points. Even if you listen perfectly, you may have the sense from time to time that you must have missed something.
I realized while listening that I've read a lot recently about moral psychology, rationality, evolution/epigenetics and neuroscience, so there was a lot of material I had read or heard before. If you've been keeping up with Jonathan Haidt, Stephen Pinker, etc, you'll already be familiar with a good bit of what's here. However, if you are interested in one of these subjects and haven't read up much on them lately, I think you'd enjoy the book.
The author's tone of voice is ... well, hilarious. It's like a man reading with a perpetual smirk while waiting for his next martini to be stirred, not shaken, because he knows, thankyouverymuch, that you don't shake martinis, for the love of all that's holy. (I've done my best to give you a sense of his voice in the text I've written -- a nearly impossible feat, but if you have a listen, you might see what I mean.) I'd choose to listen to this reader again, but I have a feeling his tone is not for everyone.
There's a lot of technical stuff. You may or may not remember as much as you'd like once it's over, but it's a good overview of where we are with understanding consciousness in the early 21st century. Also, it's not a terribly long book, and the illustrations are often amusing, so it's worth taking a chance on, IMHO.
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20 people found this helpful
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- Douglas
- 10-12-12
Holding Us Responsible
Brain expert Michael Gazzaniga uses physics, psychology, neurology and sociology in this fascinating and enlightening argument that we are, in fact, in charge of our own lives. Like Daniel Dennett in Elbow Room and Steven Pinker in How The Mind Works, Gazzaniga addresses the problem of the supposed "deterministic" nature of the physical universe and how it is that we escape moral determinism in our decision making, living in this world and having a brain made of matter. He puts to rest what Dennett calls a "philosophical bugbear" with wit and good sense, showing us what we really knew all along--despite the physical nature of our brains, we are in charge of what we do with it.
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10 people found this helpful
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- ML
- 05-01-12
Tough listen
Is there anything you would change about this book?
Maybe neuroscience isn't the best topic to listen to. I just didn't find myself eager to listen after a while. I was most attentive when he talked about specific examples with patients, moral dilemmas, split brain patients, how the interpreter comes up with absurd explanations for situations, and bizarre brain disorders. Too much detail, and not enough of a compelling storyline in my view. But I guess that's just how my brain perceived it, ;-)
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8 people found this helpful
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- Nikki
- 01-20-12
Academic
This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?
This book was very academic. Down to the siting of references every few minutes. I have a masters degree but found a lot of the content to be over my head.
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8 people found this helpful
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- Gerard Sirois
- 07-31-16
Realy
Evolutionary thinking is so out of touch with the reality that we were created. PraiseHim
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5 people found this helpful
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- Gary
- 06-20-12
Expert explains it to the rest of us
The author speaks with authority when he describes the working of the mind. Many of the other books I've been reading recently had mentioned the author's experiments on the hemispheres in the brain and how the mind works. Often, a primary researcher is not gifted at explaining, but Gazzaniga is.
In the book he does cite an official definition of consciousness that states that there are over 10000 scientific articles about consciousness and none of them add to our understanding. Who we are and what we are is just not easily understood, but this book does bring me closer to understanding.
The book also delves around a little with quantum physics and evolution. As usual, when an expert in another field, in this case neuroscience, and writes well in his own field, he writes even better when talking about other fields.
The book won't appeal to someone who wants absolute answers, because the understanding of the questions he is addressing are still fuzzy. Anyone, whose interest about neuroscience has been aroused and wants to know more about the right left brain will enjoy this well written book.
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- Lynn
- 07-31-12
You Didn't Do It Alone?
Michael Gazzaniga (Psychological Science; Cognitive Neuroscience; The Ethical Brain) now has produced Who’s in Charge? Free Will and the Science of the Brain. Gazzaniga is a well known expert in cognitive neuroscience, but this book makes the topic easy to follow and readily available to anyone willing to turns its pages. Most important, this book brings neuroscience and philosophy together. The result is a deeper understanding of free will as experienced (or thought experienced) by individuals. Gazzaniga would have been more helpful to me had he defined what he means by free will. I would have greatly benefited from having such a guide post. Such context would have been helpful. Nonetheless, the book is thought provoking and helpful from both the philosophical and the neuroscience perspectives. It will certainly make the reader stop and think. The reading of Pete Larkin is well done.
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The brain science was all that was interesting
- By 964a5 on 03-25-15
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The Tell-Tale Brain
- A Neuroscientist's Quest for What Makes Us Human
- By: V. S. Ramachandran
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 13 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
V. S. Ramachandran is at the forefront of his field - so much so that Richard Dawkins dubbed him the "Marco Polo of neuroscience". Now, in a major new work, Ramachandran sets his sights on the mystery of human uniqueness. Taking us to the frontiers of neurology, he reveals what baffling and extreme case studies can teach us about normal brain function and how it evolved.
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Great if you like understanding how brains work
- By Michael on 12-25-11
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The Little Book of Humanism
- Universal Lessons on Finding Purpose, Meaning and Joy
- By: Alice Roberts, Andrew Copson
- Narrated by: Karen Cass, Oliver Hembrough
- Length: 2 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
We all want to lead a happy life. Traditionally, when in need of guidance, comfort or inspiration, many people turn to religion. But there has been another way to learn how to live well - the humanist way - and in today's more secular world, it is more relevant than ever. In The Little Book of Humanism, Alice Roberts and Andrew Copson share over 2,000 years of humanist wisdom through an uplifting collection of stories, quotes and meditations on how to live an ethical and fulfilling life, grounded in reason and humanity.
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not disappointed
- By neil c. knopf on 09-27-21
By: Alice Roberts, and others
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Pandora’s Lab
- Seven Stories of Science Gone Wrong
- By: Paul A. Offit MD
- Narrated by: Greg Tremblay
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Pandora's Lab takes us from opium's heyday as the pain reliever of choice to recognition of opioids as a major cause of death in the United States; from the rise of trans fats as the golden ingredient for tastier, cheaper food to the heart disease epidemic that followed; and from the cries to ban DDT for the sake of the environment to an epidemic-level rise in world malaria.
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Stick to the science and drop the political slant.
- By Nancy Johnson Mercado on 06-03-17
By: Paul A. Offit MD
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Innate
- How the Wiring of Our Brains Shapes Who We Are
- By: Kevin J. Mitchell
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
What makes you the way you are - and what makes each of us different from everyone else? In Innate, leading neuroscientist and popular science blogger Kevin Mitchell traces human diversity and individual differences to their deepest level: in the wiring of our brains.
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Excellent overview.
- By John M. Hilliard on 01-25-19
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The Consciousness Instinct
- Unraveling the Mystery of How the Brain Makes the Mind
- By: Michael S. Gazzaniga
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 9 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
How do neurons turn into minds? The problem of consciousness has gnawed at us for millennia. In the last century there have been massive breakthroughs that have rewritten the science of the brain, and yet the puzzles faced by the ancient Greeks are still present. In The Consciousness Instinct, the neuroscience pioneer Michael S. Gazzaniga puts the latest research in conversation with the history of human thinking about the mind, giving a big-picture view of what science has revealed about consciousness.
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Not recommended
- By PMonaco on 01-19-19
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Tales from Both Sides of the Brain
- A Life in Neuroscience
- By: Michael S. Gazzaniga
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In the mid-20th century, Michael S. Gazzaniga made one of the great discoveries in the history of neuroscience: split-brain theory, the notion that the right and left hemispheres of the brain can act independently from each other and have different strengths.
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The brain science was all that was interesting
- By 964a5 on 03-25-15
-
The Tell-Tale Brain
- A Neuroscientist's Quest for What Makes Us Human
- By: V. S. Ramachandran
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 13 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
V. S. Ramachandran is at the forefront of his field - so much so that Richard Dawkins dubbed him the "Marco Polo of neuroscience". Now, in a major new work, Ramachandran sets his sights on the mystery of human uniqueness. Taking us to the frontiers of neurology, he reveals what baffling and extreme case studies can teach us about normal brain function and how it evolved.
-
-
Great if you like understanding how brains work
- By Michael on 12-25-11
-
The Little Book of Humanism
- Universal Lessons on Finding Purpose, Meaning and Joy
- By: Alice Roberts, Andrew Copson
- Narrated by: Karen Cass, Oliver Hembrough
- Length: 2 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We all want to lead a happy life. Traditionally, when in need of guidance, comfort or inspiration, many people turn to religion. But there has been another way to learn how to live well - the humanist way - and in today's more secular world, it is more relevant than ever. In The Little Book of Humanism, Alice Roberts and Andrew Copson share over 2,000 years of humanist wisdom through an uplifting collection of stories, quotes and meditations on how to live an ethical and fulfilling life, grounded in reason and humanity.
-
-
not disappointed
- By neil c. knopf on 09-27-21
By: Alice Roberts, and others
-
Pandora’s Lab
- Seven Stories of Science Gone Wrong
- By: Paul A. Offit MD
- Narrated by: Greg Tremblay
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Pandora's Lab takes us from opium's heyday as the pain reliever of choice to recognition of opioids as a major cause of death in the United States; from the rise of trans fats as the golden ingredient for tastier, cheaper food to the heart disease epidemic that followed; and from the cries to ban DDT for the sake of the environment to an epidemic-level rise in world malaria.
-
-
Stick to the science and drop the political slant.
- By Nancy Johnson Mercado on 06-03-17
By: Paul A. Offit MD
-
Innate
- How the Wiring of Our Brains Shapes Who We Are
- By: Kevin J. Mitchell
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What makes you the way you are - and what makes each of us different from everyone else? In Innate, leading neuroscientist and popular science blogger Kevin Mitchell traces human diversity and individual differences to their deepest level: in the wiring of our brains.
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Excellent overview.
- By John M. Hilliard on 01-25-19
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Consciousness and the Brain
- Deciphering How the Brain Codes Our Thoughts
- By: Stanislas Dehaene
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
How does the brain generate a conscious thought? And why does so much of our knowledge remain unconscious? Thanks to clever psychological and brain-imaging experiments, scientists are closer to cracking this mystery than ever before. In this lively book, Stanislas Dehaene describes the pioneering work his lab and the labs of other cognitive neuroscientists worldwide have accomplished in defining, testing, and explaining the brain events behind a conscious state.
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I had no idea we knew this much.
- By Tristan on 01-18-16
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Flavor
- The Science of Our Most Neglected Sense
- By: Bob Holmes
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Can you describe how the flavor of halibut differs from red snapper? How Brie differs from cheddar? For most of us, unfortunately, the answer is: badly. Flavor remains a vague, undeveloped concept we don't know enough about to describe - or to appreciate - fully. In Flavor, Bob Holmes shows us just how much we're missing. He tackles questions like why cake tastes sweetest on white plates, how wine experts' eyes fool their noses, and how language affects flavor.
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Horrible narration
- By Sandra T. Sutherlin on 11-15-18
By: Bob Holmes
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The Science of Evil
- On Empathy and the Origins of Cruelty
- By: Simon Baron-Cohen
- Narrated by: Jonathan Cowley
- Length: 4 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Borderline personality disorder, autism, narcissism, psychosis, Asperger's: All of these syndromes have one thing in common---lack of empathy. In some cases, this absence can be dangerous, but in others it can simply mean a different way of seeing the world. In The Science of Evil, Simon Baron-Cohen, an award-winning British researcher who has investigated psychology and autism for decades, develops a new brain-based theory of human cruelty.
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What causes evil?
- By Cynthia on 03-10-13
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The Ethical Brain
- By: Michael S. Gazzaniga
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 6 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Will increased scientific understanding of our brains overturn our beliefs about moral and ethical behavior? How will increasingly powerful brain imaging technologies affect the ideas of privacy and of self-incrimination? Such thought-provoking questions are rapidly emerging as new discoveries in neuroscience have raised difficult legal and ethical dilemmas. Michael Gazzaniga, widely considered to be the father of cognitive neuroscience, investigates with an expert eye some of these controversial and complex issues.
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interesting stuff
- By Derek on 05-07-09
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Phantoms in the Brain
- Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind
- By: Sandra Blakeslee, V. S. Ramachandran
- Narrated by: Neil Shah
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Neuroscientist V. S. Ramachandran is internationally renowned for uncovering answers to the deep and quirky questions of human nature that few scientists have dared to address. His bold insights about the brain are matched only by the stunning simplicity of his experiments - using such low-tech tools such as cotton swabs, glasses of water, and dime-store mirrors.
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Wonderful To See...
- By Douglas on 01-18-14
By: Sandra Blakeslee, and others
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Social