Brain plasticity – the idea that the brain is far more than a mere computer that slowly dies as we get older – is possibly the most stunning reversal of knowledge in the late 20th century. And yet it is still mostly unknown to many people, who have been brought up on...
This classic book, first published in 1974, is still in print and still selling. Yet it may shock the first-time reader to see that many of the author’s suggestions – made 45 years ago – have yet to be acted upon. In some respects, the negative trends identified by...
We hear about empathy more and more these days; there is even a travelling museum of empathy. But long before the media landed on it, Frans de Waal, one of the world’s leading primatologists and the discoverer that animals perform reconciliation, wrote this book...
Almost anything written by Kevin Kelly is worth a read. One of the founders of Wired magazine, and more importantly, the man behind Kevin Kelly’s Cool Tools website, he is a thoughtful, humane and persistent examiner of what the future will look like. And the future...
First published in 2009, The Master and his Emissary is a landmark in studies on the two hemispheres of the brain, and how their different modes of interacting with reality have shaped the world we live in. Iain McGilchrist is a psychiatrist and academic and has been...