The Making of Memory - Couverture souple

Rose, Steven

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0553407481 ISBN 13 : 9780553407488

Editeur : Bantam Books (Transworld Publishers a division of the Random House Group), 1993

Synopsis

The human brain weighs, on average, just over two pounds, is wrinkled like a walnut and has the colour and something of the consistency of porridge. Yet somehow the interactions of the ten billion cells that comprise it produce our capacity to think, hope, believe, imagine, and also to remember - to learn and recall, perhaps years later, a face, a tune, a poem or a telephone number. Are there molecules of memory? Can we understand the brain best as a computer? What light do diseases of memory shed on its mechanism? What is it, locked into the interactions of the brain cells and the molecules composing them, that carries the memories which make each person unique? Deciphering this, Steven Rose argues, is the key to interpreting the links between brain and mind. In this book he traces the road to a new understanding of memory that he and other researchers have followed, with all its false turnings and misleading signposts. One of the aims of the book is to explore, through a description of the laboratory life of memory researchers, how scientists, in a world not free from political rivalry, ideology and self-deception, nevertheless strive to answer an important and fascinating question. The winner of the Rhone-Poulenc Science Prize 1993.

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur

Steven Rose's The Making of Memory is about just that, in both its senses: the biological processes by which we humans - and other animals - learn and remember, and how researchers can explore these mechanisms. But it is also about much more.

When the first edition of this fascinating book won the Science book Prize in 1993, the judges described it as 'a riveting read...a first-hand account by a practicing scientist working at the forefront of medical research and Rose does not duck the issues which that raises.'

Now ten years on, research has itself moved forward, and Rose has taken the opportunity to fully revise the book. But this is more than mere revision. Where ten years ago he argued the case for research on memory because it is the most extraordinary of human attributes, Rose's own research has now opened the doors to a potential new treatment for Alzheimer's Disease undreamed of a decade ago, and in an entirely new chapter he describes how this potential breakthrough has occurred.

Revue de presse

"There is no denying his skill as a writer...a flowing, elegant scientific treatise" (Observer)

"Quite simply one of the most interesting books which I have ever perused" (Scotsman)

"Rose introduces each topic with skill and clarity" (Guardian)

"Exceptionally well-written...a fascinating account of the current state of play in the neurosciences" (Times Higher Educational Supplement)

"Compelling... The job of demystifying science is completed with style, jargon-free and elegantly written" (Oliver Robinson Observer)

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Bantam Books (Transworld Publishers a division of the Random House Group)
• Date d'édition: 1993
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0553407481
• ISBN 13: 9780553407488
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 368
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible