Distributed Presses

The recently published Best of the Brain from Scientific American: Mind, Matter, and Tomorrow's Brain is reviewed in the June issue of Harper's Magazine. Gary Greenberg discusses the book with several other newly published titles on neuroscience and society in a long and wide-ranging essay. He notes:

If you are going to live, whether you like it or not, in thrall to your brain, then your future belongs in some way to the doctors who claim to be the only people qualified to explain you to yourself. . . . The prominent neuroscientists who contribute to Best of the Brain are sure that a full explication of its operation is just a supersized technical challenge that will soon be met.

Read the full Harper's Magazine review
Learn more about Best of the Brain from Scientific American: Mind, Matter, and Tomorrow's Brain, published by Dana Press

Posted by HG at 01:57 PM | Permalink
Posted to Biology | Dana Press | Reviews

Dan Gordon was interviewed today about Your Brain on Cubs on NPR's "Science Friday" hosted by Ira Flatow. In anticipation of Opening Day on Monday, Gordon appeared with several other guests on an hour-long baseball-themed segment of the show to discuss the science and psychology of baseball, fan loyalty, and other intriguing topics.

Listen to the full Science Talk interview
Learn more about Your Brain on Cubs: Inside the Heads of Players and Fans

Posted by HG at 03:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Posted to Author Events | Biology | Books for the News | Dana Press

Dan Gordon, editor of Dana Press's newly published Your Brain on Cubs: Inside the Heads of Players and Fans, was interviewed today on Scientific American's podcast "Science Talk" by host Steve Mirsky.

Listen to the full Science Talk podcast interview
Learn more about Your Brain on Cubs: Inside the Heads of Players and Fans

Posted by HG at 02:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Posted to Biology | Books for the News | Dana Press

Your Brain on Cubs editor Dan Gordon and essay contributor Dr. Steven Small were recently interviewed about the book on several Chicago television and radio programs.

The book and its editors were featured on WBBM-TV CBS 2, WGN-TV, WMAQ-TV NBC 5, and WGN Radio 720's "Sports Talk." The March 10th launch event at the Cubby Bear Lounge was also featured in Time Out Chicago.

Read the articles about Your Brain on Cubs: Inside the Heads of Players and Fans on CBS 2, WGN-TV, and NBC 5
Learn more about Your Brain on Cubs: Inside the Heads of Players and Fans

Posted by HG at 11:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Posted to Author Events | Biology | Books for the News | Dana Press

Opening Day is just around the corner and heralding this harbinger of springtime is the newest publication from Dana Press, Your Brain on Cubs. The book's launch event will be held on Monday, March 10th at 6:30 p.m. at the Cubby Bear Lounge, 1059 W. Addison. The event will have a discussion panel moderated by Chicago Tribune science and medicine reporter Jeremy Manier and featuring Your Brain on Cubs editor Dan Gordon, book contributor Dr. Steven Small, and special guest Dr. Areyeh Routtenberg.

In anticipation of the event, Chicago Tribune sport columnist Fred Mitchell featured the book in his column today:

The depths of loyalty for a franchise that has not won a World Series in 100 years boggle the mind. Especially your minds. Is it the allure of rooting for the perennial underdog? Is it the pursuit of a delayed gratification that the law of averages dictates will come to pass one day?

These are questions that need to be asked and answered for the future sanity of Cubs Nation. And now even neuroscientists are weighing in on this sports and society phenomenon that some view as sadistic.

Book editor Dan Gordon will also be interviewed by Dave Kaplan tonight on WGN Radio's "Sports Central."

Learn more about the Your Brain on Cubs launch event
Read the full Chicago Tribune column
Listen to the WGN Radio "Sports Central" interview
Learn more about Your Brain on Cubs: Inside the Heads of Players and Fans

Posted by HG at 10:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Posted to Author Events | Biology | Books for the News | Dana Press

Dan Gordon, editor of the forthcoming Your Brain on Cubs, was interviewed yesterday on WBEZ Chicago Public Radio's newsmagazine "848". Dan ably explained some of the intriguing ideas contained in the book, including the way our brain works when we're despairing over another Cubs loss, why we prefer to root for the underdog, and the ways that a ballplayer's brain works as he plays the game.

Bloggers have also taken notice of the book: It was discussed here and here.

Listen to the "848" interview of Dan Gordon
Learn more about Your Brain on Cubs

Posted by HG at 02:15 PM | Permalink
Posted to Biology | Books for the News | Dana Press | Publicity

Hannah Velten wrote an engaging editorial for the British publication Farmer's Weekly about the history of cows and cattle. An excerpt:

But it is only relatively recently that we have started to view the cow as an almost alien being. In our urban, media-led country, cows are either seen as cutesy animals (especially calves) or are seen in a negative light as environment killers (think "Cow farts destroy ozone"), disease-bearing nightmares (think "Mad Cows") or the pitiable wreckage of intensive farming (think "Poor Cows"). . . .

So it seems sad to think that the animal that played such a huge role in shaping civilisations has been reduced to a commercial milking machine, a sperm donor, a walking larder and a provider of leather. I'm hoping that Cow will reintroduce the public (and also farmers) to this remarkable animal, by recognising what cattle have contributed to our culture, and also to instill some respect for what cattle produce for us—they work so hard; I am just trying to repay my debt of gratitude.

Read the full editorial
Check out the author's blog
Learn more about Cow

Posted by HG at 03:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Posted to Biology | Commentary | Reaktion

Helen Phillips reviewed Bruce McEwan's Cerebrum 2007: Emerging Ideas in Brain Science in New Scientist on June 9th, 2007:

For stimulating brain fodder, read this compendium of essays from the online journal . . . . [T]he book serves as an excellent shop window for the journal: I'll certainly be checking the latest issues online from now on.

Read the Review

Learn More about the Book

Posted by SSD at 11:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Posted to Biology | Dana Press | Reviews

Hugh Gusterson recently reviewed Jonathan D. Moreno's Mind Wars: Brain Research and National Defense in the Bulletin Online, the online site of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. (It's presently 5 minutes to Doomsday.)

Gusterson compares the intersection of neuroscience and national defense with the development of atomic physics and nuclear weapons, "We've seen this story before," he says. "The Pentagon takes an interest in a rapidly changing area of scientific knowledge, and the world is forever changed. And not for the better."

Gusterson goes on to emphasize, "Moreno's book is important since there has been little discussion about the ethical implications of such research, and the science is at an early enough stage that it might yet be redirected in response to public discussion."

Read the Review

Learn More about the Book

Update!

The Utne Reader recently continued the conversation on some of issues related to Mind Wars. Bennett Gordon writes, "Many neuroscientists have concluded that competing tendencies inside the brain—not some transient being or God— are the true source of morality."

In Mind Wars, Moreno shows that the Department of Defense is already researching "neuroweapons." One possible class of weapons includes drugs that "repress psychological inhibitions against killing." This presents an ethical quandary with the use of neurotechnology. If neurotechnologies act directly on the human brain, the locus of human morality, then the application of such technologies will fundamentally alter our sense of morality. Gordon quotes William Saletan on the matter, "Once technology manipulates ethics, ethics can no longer judge technology."

Read Gordon's article

Posted by SSD at 10:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Posted to Biology | Dana Press | Philosophy | Politics and Current Events | Reviews

Nicky Penttila recently interviewed Kevin J. Tracey for the Dana Press web site. Tracey, author of Fatal Sequence: The Killer Within, discusses his motivations for writing and some of the implications of his investigations into sepsis, the sometimes fatal over-response of the immune system to infection.

Fatal Sequence tells the story of Janice, a one-year-old who arrives in the emergency room, burned by boiling water after she crawled behind her unsuspecting grandmother as she turned from the stove. She survives the night, but the following morning is only the beginning of her long and intense battle against severe sepsis, as her body attacks itself. Tracey, who cared for the girl during her four weeks in intensive care, draws on her case to vividly illustrate why sepsis happens, in a sensitive, suspenseful story that renders cutting-edge science human, accessible, and unforgettable.

Read the Interview

Learn More about the Book

Posted by SSD at 09:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Posted to Author Events | Biology | Dana Press

Floyd E. Bloom's Best of the Brain from Scientific American: Mind, Matter, and Tomorrow's Brain was recently reviewed in Publisher's Weekly: "Well written and accessible to a general audience. . . . There's much to stimulate the brain of any reader."

The Globe and Mail also noted the book in its "More Grey Matter" section on April 7, 2007.

Read the Review from Publisher's Weekly

Learn More about the Book

Posted by SSD at 12:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Posted to Biology | Dana Press

Angela Bennie recently reviewed Stephen Connor's Fly in Melbourne's The Age, calling it, ". . . an intriguing monograph on our humble companion through life." Bennie calls out some of the more enlightening facts about the humble fly, but situates Connor's book in the context of his larger philosophical project of ". . . tracking the way the seemingly small, the ignored, the taken-for-granted phenomena of the world we live in impinge upon our senses and our understanding of ourselves."

Read the Review

Learn More about the Book

Posted by SSD at 02:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Posted to Art and Architecture | Biology | Literature | Philosophy | Reaktion | Reviews

The Neurophilosophy blog recently featured Jonathan D. Moreno's Mind Wars: Brain Research and National Defense.

Moheb Costandi discusses some of the historical background to the U.S. Military's interest in neuroscience and its desire to create more sophisticated "network-centric" force. Costandi goes on to emphasize the ethical issues at hand and the need for neuroscientists to think about the ethical implications of their work.

Although the review situates Moreno squarely within the military establishment, it credits him with even-handedness:

. . . he has served on numerous federal advisory committees, advised the Department of Homeland Defense on biodefence, and testified before both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Nevertheless, Mind Wars is even-handed and thought-provoking. It is very readable, and easily accessible to people without a background in neuroscience.

Read the Review

The Review is also available from the Institute of Ethics & Emerging Technologies

Learn More about the Book

Posted by SSD at 11:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Posted to Biology | Dana Press | Philosophy | Politics and Current Events | Reviews

Jeff Hecht of New Scientist reviewed Jonathan D. Moreno's Mind Wars: Brain Research and National Defense in the January 19th, 2007 issue: "Experiments designed to control the mind must meet proper ethical standards or else be condemned. But we should apply our judgments fairly. . . ."

Read the Review (Requires Log-in)

Learn More about the Book

Posted by SSD at 02:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Posted to Biology | Dana Press | History and Philosophy of Science | Politics and Current Events | Reviews

The SharpBrains blog recently praised The Dana Guide to Brain Health:

In short, a great reference book for professionals and for people interested in the brain. And a great starting point (the only one we are aware of) for a really useful and practical guide to Brain Health that every family should have. In a bit more creative terms: great quality marble looking for a consumer-oriented Michelangelo.

Read the Review

Learn More about the Book

Posted by SSD at 10:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Posted to Biology | Dana Press | Reference and Writing | Reviews

While writing on ethics and DARPA in his Frontal Cortex blog, Jonah Lehrer offers praise for Jonathan D. Moreno's Mind Wars: Brain Research and National Defense, "In his calm, comprehensive and fascinating new book Mind Wars, Jonathan Moreno documented the ethical quandaries that DARPA's research will confront in the future." Lehrer goes on to say, ". . . [I]f you're interested in the difficult questions, then I recommend Mind Wars."

Read the Review

Learn More about the Book

Posted by SSD at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Posted to Biology | History and Philosophy of Science | Philosophy | Politics and Current Events | Reviews

Jonathen D. Moreno's Mind Wars: Brain Research and National Defense continues to attract attention. Sharon Begley uses Moreno's book as the backbone for her article on DARPA's research into neuroscience, citing examples such as the drug CX717, "which enables sleep-deprived people to maintain memory and cognitive function," and the "dual use" concept, where military research has an impact on both military and civilian lives.

Begley implicitly praises Moreno for opening up discussion on the intersection of military research and neuroscience, "The time to speak up is before the genie is out of the bottle."

Read the "Science Journal" in the Wall Street Journal

Learn More about the Book

Posted by SSD at 09:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Posted to Biology | Books for the News | Dana Press | History and Philosophy of Science | Politics and Current Events

Nancy C. Andreasen, author of The Creating Brain, will be interviewed on NPR's Science Friday by Ira Flatow on Friday, December 15th.

Michelangelo was raised in a rustic village by a family of modest means. Shakespeare's father was a middle-class businessman. Abraham Lincoln came from a family of itinerant farmers. Yet all these men broke free from their limited circumstances and achieved brilliant careers as creative artists and leaders. How such extraordinary creativity develops in the human brain is the subject of renowned psychiatrist Nancy Andreasen's The Creating Brain.

Visit Science Friday

Learn More about the Book

Posted by SSD at 08:43 AM | Permalink
Posted to Art and Architecture | Author Events | Biology | Dana Press

Jonathan D. Moreno, author of Mind Wars: Brain Research and National Defense, will be featured on News Radio FOX (http://www.newsradiofox.com/) on December 20th at 3:15 CST.

In his fascinating new book, Jonathan D. Moreno investigates the deeply intertwined worlds of cutting-edge brain science, U.S. defense agencies, and a volatile geopolitical landscape where a nation's weaponry must go far beyond bombs and men. The first-ever exploration of the connections between national security and brain research, Mind Wars: Brain Research and National Defense reveals how many questions crowd this gray intersection of science and government and urges us to begin to answer them.

News Radio FOX

Learn More about the Book

Posted by SSD at 10:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Posted to Author Events | Biology | Dana Press | History and Philosophy of Science | Politics and Current Events

Jonathan D. Moreno, author of Mind Wars: Brain Research and National Defense, is featured on the New York Academy of Sciences web site. The site features an interview with Moreno, excerpts, and audio in podcast and mp3 formats.

Visit the NYAAS to read the interview and download the audio

Learn More about the Book

Posted by SSD at 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Posted to Author Events | Biology | Dana Press | History and Philosophy of Science | Politics and Current Events

Jonathen D. Moreno's Mind Wars: Brain Research and National Defense continues to attract positive reviews from the neuroscience community. Chris Chatham recently praised it on his Developing Intelligence blog:

Mind Wars will likely be enjoyed by both neuroscientists, psychologists, and lay people alike . . . [and] the historical and ethical treatment[s] of military neuroscience are the most timeless contributions of Mind Wars to this debate, and will be interesting to anyone with an interest in science and its applications.

Read the Review

Learn More about the Book

Posted by SSD at 03:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Posted to Biology | Dana Press | History and Philosophy of Science | Politics and Current Events | Reviews

Jonathan D. Moreno's Mind Wars: Brain Research and National Defense continues to receive praise from reviewers. John Mangels, writing in Cleveland's The Plain Dealer, suggests, "Moreno takes an evenhanded, thorough look at how deeply the intelligence and defense communities are involved in many of those [neuroscience] advances, and the mindfields that might lie ahead."

Mangels also gives Moreno credit for suggesting that ". . . neuroscience's powerful new tools be used to plumb the brain's capacity for peacemaking as well as war-waging. It's a poignant thought—that the organ that makes us human might help keep us that way."

Mind Wars, along with many other Dana Press titles, has been placed on the Neuroethics and Law Blog's Holiday Brain Book Guide

Read the Review online

Visit the Neuroethics and Law Blog's Holiday Brain Book Guide

Learn More about the Book

Posted by SSD at 09:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Posted to Biology | Dana Press | Philosophy | Politics and Current Events | Reviews

Choice recently recommended Transboundary Conservation for "its beautiful photographs and lush descriptions" of areas designated for conservation through cooperative agreements. There are 28 case studies of these regions from a total list of 188.

Conservation International has been instrumental in raising awareness and concern about the most environmentally endangered regions and animals throughout the world with its publication of high-quality volumes that combine breathtaking photography with expert scientific analysis. Continuing in this distinguished tradition, Conservation International offers here a new, lushly illustrated volume that examines transboundary conservation areas—environmentally endangered regions that sprawl across international borders and contain multiple protected areas.

Learn More about Transboundary Conservation

Visit Conservation International's Web Site

Posted by SSD at 09:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Posted to Biology | Conservation International | Politics and Current Events | Reviews

Jonathan D. Moreno, author of Mind Wars: Brain Research and National Defense (Dana Press), recently published "The Role of Brian Research in National Defense" in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Moreno outlines the growth of neuroscience and the ethical conundrums that are posed by the intersection of national security interests and neuroscience research. He discusses the state of science, the persistant fears associated with the idea ". . . that some deliberate and fairly precise means can be used to alter our cognition or behavior in accord with someone else's strategic purpose," and the potential benefits to national security—in addition to the obvious importance of neuroscience to medicine.

Moreno ends his article advocating "a reasoned public conversation about the role of brain research in national defense." His essay is a great place to introduce the contours of the debate.

Read Moreno's Article

Learn more about the Mind Wars: Brain Research and National Defense

Posted by SSD at 08:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Posted to Author Events | Biology | Books for the News | Dana Press | History and Philosophy of Science | Philosophy | Politics and Current Events

Jonathan D. Moreno's Mind Wars: Brain Research and National Defense was recently reviewed by Charles Jennings in Nature (Volume 443, Number 7114). Jennings describes Moreno's book as "fascinating and sometimes unsettling," even as he suspects Moreno of hyperbole in asking, "[I]s this stuff for real?"

Moreno is a respected bioethicist and he had trouble getting answers to his questions from neuroscientists working within the defense industry. As such, Jennings thinks Moreno's work will bear fruit, "Mind Wars, the first systematic treatement of the topic, should help bring these questions into the open."

From neuropharmacology to neural imaging to brain-machine interface devices that relay images and sounds between human brains and machines, Moreno shows how national security entities seek to harness the human nervous system in a multitude of ways as a potent weapon against the enemy soldier. Moreno charts such projects as monkeys moving robotic arms with their minds, technology to read the brain's thought patterns at a distance, the development of "anti-sleep" drugs to enhance soldiers' battle performance and others to dampen their emotional reactions to the violence, and advances that could open the door to "neuroweapons"—virus-transported molecules to addle the brain.

Read the Review online

Learn More about the Book

Posted by SSD at 09:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Posted to Biology | Dana Press | Politics and Current Events | Reviews

The Sierra Club recently reviewed Bear, Robert E. Bieder's contribution to Reaktion's Animal series, in the Media Lounge section of their Green Life site.

Read the Review

Learn More about the Book

See all the books in the series

Posted by SSD at 09:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Posted to Biology | Reaktion | Reviews

The New England Journal of Medicine recently reviewed Mark Jackson's Allergy: The History of a Modern Malady, which has also garnered praise elsewhere.

In the New England Journal of Medicine, Heather L. Van Epps praises Jackson's skills as a historian and claims that Allergy "provides a rich medical and social narrative, suitable for anyone with a penchant for medical history and curiosity about the roots of this still enigmatic modern-day scourge."

Only a century ago, allergies as we know them didn't exist. Ailments such as hay fever, asthma, and food intolerance were considered rare and non-fatal diseases that affected only the upper classes of Western society. Yet, as Jackson reveals here, what began in the early 1900s as a scorned subfield of immunology research in Europe and America exploded into great medical, cultural, and political significance by the end of that century. Allergy traces how the allergy became the archetypal "disease of civilization," a fringe malady of the wealthy that became a disorder that bridged all socioeconomic boundaries and fueled anxieties over modernization. Jackson also examines the social impact of the allergy, as it required new therapeutic treatments and diagnostic procedures and brought in vast economic rewards.

Read the Review (log-in required)

Learn more about the Book

Posted by SSD at 02:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Posted to Biology | History | Reaktion | Reviews

Martin Skov's blog at Brainethics recently previewed Mind Wars: Brain Research and National Defense by Jonathan D. Moreno. Skov writes, "Mind Wars is the first book, as far as I know, to survey the American military's use of, and involvement in, neuroscience research."

Skov also discusses the "dual use" concept, in which brain research is financed by and applied to both medical and military applications; but, he holds off further comment on the book until its publication in November, "I will wait a few months before recording my thoughts about it here on the blog, but rest assured that you will hear about this book again."

Read Marin Skov's Brainethics Blog

Learn more about the Book

Posted by SSD at 07:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Posted to Biology | Books for the News | Dana Press | Politics and Current Events | Reviews

Mark Jackson's Allergy: The History of a Modern Malady is proving popular in the early-summer allergy season. Jeremy Laurance writes in The Independent, "Mark Jackson's book is meticulously researched and written, and of undoubted value to the academic." Adrian Barnett writes, "As you snuffle through next pollen season, you might be consoled (though probably only slightly) by reading this fascinating book," in a brief review in New Scientist. Lastly, Publisher's Weekly proclaims, "The beauty of Jackson's study is his combination of the cultural and social with the medical, the result of which is a masterful overview of the evolution of allergy as a public health problem."

Read Jeremy Laurance's review in The Independent.

Read Adrian Barnett's review in New Scientist

Read the review in Publisher's Weekly

Learn more about the Book

Posted by SSD at 12:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Posted to Biology | History | History and Philosophy of Science | Reaktion | Reviews

Reaktion's Animal series continues to appeal to readers. Helen Macdonald's Falcon and Paul Carter's Parrot were recently featured in the Washington Post by Rachel Hartigan Shea. Shea praises Falcon, "This beautifully designed book offers a natural history of this fastest of all the animals as well as the story of how these birds' lives have long intertwined with those of humans," and reflects Carter's sensiblities, "A true fan who includes his favorite parrot jokes in the index, Carter claims that 'without parrots we cannot be human.'"

Learn more about Falcon

Learn more about Parrot

Read Shea's review in the Washington Post

Posted by SSD at 10:29 AM | Permalink
Posted to Biology | Reaktion | Reviews

For most of us, neuroscience research is a rarified world of laboratory experiments that has little to do with our everyday lives. Yet, sooner than we may expect, new discoveries in neuroscience will directly affect the way we live, work, and think. Acclaimed science writer Sandra Ackerman has been on the front lines of the ethical debates in neuroscience, and in Hard Science, Hard Choices she offers a concise, yet informed, examination of the ethical challenges facing neuroscience today.

Top scholars and scientists in neuroscience, law, and ethics convened at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., last May to debate the latest findings in neuroscience and their potential impact on society. Ackerman's clear, engaging narrative synthesizes their discussions and explores the controversial issues that emerged with the newest neuroscience discoveries. The volume is divided into three topics—Neuroimaging, Drugs on the Brain, and Neurotechnology—and each section examines the numerous facets of neuroscience's ethical quandaries. From the definition of consciousness in brain damaged patients, to the long-term health effects of Ritalin and other psychiatric drugs on children, to the use of neuroimaging in courts of law, Hard Science, Hard Choices reveals that the consequences of brain research are not tomorrow's problems—we have already entered uncharted scientific territory.

Read the Full Press Release

Learn more about the Book

Posted by SSD at 08:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Posted to Biology | Dana Press | History and Philosophy of Science | Math and Physics | Politics and Current Events | Press Releases

The sight of blooming flowers and lush green fields fills some people with dread. Cuddly kittens and puppies cause others to cry instead of smile. And a bumblebee will send many running for the nearest building. Why? It's all due to one of the most subtle yet widespread medical afflictions of our times: the allergy.

In this engaging and groundbreaking social history, Mark Jackson unearths the rich and wide-ranging roots of this "modern malady." Until the early twentieth century, the allergy didn't even exist. And even when it was first diagnosed in the early 1900s, the allergy was merely considered a rare affliction of the affluent and it subsisted as a scorned subfield of immunological research. Yet with advances in medical research and the rapidly increasing number of diagnoses, doctors quickly realized that the allergy knew no bounds of race or class.

Read the Full Press Release

Learn more about the Book

Posted by SSD at 02:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Posted to Biology | History and Philosophy of Science | Press Releases | Reaktion

In light of the dwindling population of the world's creatures, Globe and Mail columnist Martin Levin recently praised the Animal series from Reaktion Books:

There are also thousands of works on individual animals, but I draw your attention to a delightfully different series on specific creatures, some by no means cuddly. Instead of concentrating on the -- largely baleful -- impact of humans on the other animals with which we grudgingly share this planet, a lively and lovely series from Britain's Reaktion Books focuses on the cultural history of critters: those we love or admire -- whale, bear, parrot, dog, bee, falcon; those we are ambivalent about or perhaps indifferent to -- crow and oyster; but also those we regard with distrust or even loathing -- ant, cockroach, rat and snake.

Learn more about books in the series.

Read Martin Levin's column.

Posted by SSD at 09:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Posted to Biology | Books for the News | Reaktion | Reviews

Michael Gazzaniga, author of The Ethical Brain, neuroscientist, and member of the President's Council on Bioethics was recently interviewed by both American Scientist and U.S. News and World Report. Gazzaniga elucidates on the themes contained in The Ethical Brain:

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? Can the ethics of science and religion be reconciled? Is insanity a permissible legal defense?

Read Gazzaniga's Interview at American Scientist

Read Gazzaniga's Interview at U.S. News and World Report

Read an Excerpt of The Ethical Brain

Learn More about the book

Posted by SSD at 08:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Posted to Author Events | Biology | Books for the News | Dana Press | Philosophy

Nancy Andreasen's The Creating Brain has recently been reviewed in the Wall Street Journal and in the Washington Post.

Andreasen explains in The Creating Brain how the brain produces creative breakthroughs in art, literature, and science, revealing that creativity is not the same thing as intelligence. She scrutinizes the complex factors involved in the development of creativity, including the role of patrons and mentors, "non-standard" educations, and the possession of an "omnivorous" vision.

Read the Review in the Washington Post

Read the Review in the Wall Street Journal

Learn More about the Book