Book
I am reading one of the best books I have read in a very long time. It is by Eric Kandel, a nobel prize winner in physiology/medicine, and is a memoir of his life in science. It describes how he discovered the neurobiological basis of memory along with all the detail of what he discovered. It is so well written you don't realize that you are getting neuroscience lectures from a brilliant teacher. A lot of it is material you would get in an advanced neuroscience class but you don't notice because it is interspersed with his memoir and builds up so naturally and gradually. He also uses a ton of metaphors to make things intuitive and clear. I highly, highly recommend it if memoirs of science interest you or you are fascinated by memory. I also recommend it as just a plain old memoir. The author is a great writer and has a wonderful sense of humor.
I met him years ago at Gustavus. He was a speaker at the Nobel Conference and I was a host for another one of the speakers. He was an elderly man at the time, but we joked about going out dancing and partying at the dive or maybe a party. The thing is, I think he might have taken me up on it. The other impression I had of him was that he was the most intelligent person I had ever met. I still feel that way and the book just reinforces my belief. His writing and thinking is so clear and beautiful. I am honestly in awe of what he must have been like as a teacher.
Anyway.
The book is: "In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind" by Eric R. Kandel.
I met him years ago at Gustavus. He was a speaker at the Nobel Conference and I was a host for another one of the speakers. He was an elderly man at the time, but we joked about going out dancing and partying at the dive or maybe a party. The thing is, I think he might have taken me up on it. The other impression I had of him was that he was the most intelligent person I had ever met. I still feel that way and the book just reinforces my belief. His writing and thinking is so clear and beautiful. I am honestly in awe of what he must have been like as a teacher.
Anyway.
The book is: "In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind" by Eric R. Kandel.