What is it that makes Man, in Hamlet's phrase, a "paragon of animals"? The answer: a brain so greedy it gobbles a fifth of his energy; so big his birth was agony for his mother. Adam Zeman draws on literature, the history of science, and his practice as a consultant neurologist to paint a portrait which, like the brain itself, is elegantly arranged. A chapter apiece is devoted to each of the organ's structures, building up from atom to psyche, and rounded off with a chapter on the soul.
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