Holy Hindu Cow! What’s News?: Sid Harth
Holy Hindu Cow! What’s New?: Sid Harth
Posted on June 12, 2011 by admin
June 12, 2011
Insane Science: 5 New Books That Explain The Brain
by Michael Schaub
Chris Silas Neal
By David J. Linden, hardcover, 240 pages, Viking, list price: $26.95
Unless you’re at the kind of cookout where words like amygdala and dopamine get tossed around instead of Frisbees, you’re probably not thinking too intently about what’s going on in your “medial forebrain pleasure circuit.” That might change if you read neuroscientist David J. Linden’s The Compass of Pleasure, a hugely entertaining look at why we enjoy the things we enjoy. They’re not all vices, either — your brain can be stimulated by sex and drugs, but it also derives pleasure from working out and, believe it or not, paying your taxes. There’s hardcore biology here, but it’s tempered with personal anecdotes, penetrating observations and quotes from the likes of comedian Mitch Hedberg and Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy. If you’re science-phobic, don’t worry: Linden is incredibly smart, but comes across as the funny, patient professor you wish you’d had in college.
The Believing Brain: From Ghosts To Gods To Politics And Conspiracies — How We Construct Beliefs And Reinforce Them As Truths
By Michael Shermer, hardcover, 400 pages, Times Books, list price: $28
“Beliefs come first, explanations for beliefs follow.” That’s the argument professional skeptic Michael Shermer makes in The Believing Brain, a book that fuses neuroscience, sociology and the author’s own biographical stories into a compelling and sometimes deeply personal read — even if you don’t agree with him on everything. And you won’t.Shermer, a former evangelical Christian who became an agnostic in college, now dedicates his sprawling career to debunking what he sees as superstitions and failures of logic, from religion to alien abduction to Sept. 11 conspiracy theories. In this, his 17th book, he argues that supernatural beliefs are the product of our brains and that we arrive at those beliefs in spite of — not because of — scientific evidence. Shermer is a convincing voice, but he’s not necessarily a hardliner — he points out that while the scientific method remains “the best tool ever” when it comes to deflating paranormal claims, “we must always remember that we could be wrong.”
More On ‘The Psychopath Test’:
By Jon Ronson, hardcover, 288 pages, Riverhead, list price: $25.95
When you think about relaxing summer reading, studies of psychopaths probably don’t pop into your mind. (At least we hope not.) But that shouldn’t stop you from picking up Jon Ronson’s The Psychopath Test. The subject matter is, yes, disturbing, but Ronson’s book is one of the funniest and most entertaining of the year. In its enjoyable pages, the British journalist and author of The Men Who Stare at Goats goes in search of one of the world’s most enigmatic and frightening personality disorders. He talks to psychiatrists, a patient at a notorious English psychiatric hospital, an exiled terrorist and a disgraced CEO. (One theory suggests that psychopaths, who seem to lack a conscience, do inordinately well in business.) It’s unsettling stuff, to be sure, but Ronson is a charmingly self-deprecating and remarkably charismatic author. The bad news? Scientists estimate that 1 percent of the population is psychopathic. The good news? A psychiatrist assures Ronson, if you’re worried you might be a psychopath, you’re almost certainly not one.
By Tali Sharot, hardcover, 272 pages, Pantheon, list price: $25.95
Even the most cheerful and upbeat among us might be tempted to bang our head against a wall if we are forced to hear “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” one more time. But as Tali Sharot points out in her fascinating new book, The Optimism Bias, that stubbornly sunny attitude is not necessarily what optimism means. Even if you’re a dedicated cynic, you might be surprised to learn that your brain is wearing rose-colored glasses, whether you like it or not.Drawing from biology and psychology — as well as from such unlikely sources as the Los Angeles Lakers, Shirley Temple and Guinness stout — London-based scientist Sharot explains why the brains of most people are programmed to predict happy endings in all facets of our lives. Hope isn’t just a campaign slogan, she argues; it’s an instinct of self-preservation. What your irrepressibly chipper friends have been telling you is right: studies show that optimists tend to live longer and pessimists die younger. Optimism might just be your mind playing tricks on you, but it turns out there’s a good reason for that.
By Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam, hardcover, 416 pages, Dutton, list price: $26.95
If you want to know what people think about sex, just ask them. But If you want to know what people really think about sex, go to the Internet. That’s where scientists Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam turned to research their explicit, engrossing and occasionally disturbing A Billion Wicked Thoughts, which seeks to explain how men and women experience sexual desire differently. (It may seem self-evident, but it’s worth repeating the authors’ warning: this is not a book for children.)Crunching reams of Internet-browsing data, Ogas and Gaddam draw some surprising conclusions about what turns us on and what “squicks us out.” Men’s sexual brains, they argue, are more like Elmer Fudd and women’s more like Miss Marple. As for our conventional wisdom about sex, it’s largely untrue, they write. We all know that straight men prefer young, slender women; that women have no interest in pornography; and that only gay men are turned on by seeing other men’s genitals. Right? Wrong. We don’t always want what we think we do — and the proof, Ogas and Gaddam assert like a couple of well-meaning psych-major nerds with spyware, is in our X-rated browser histories.
More From This Series
Podcast + RSS Feeds
Podcast RSS
- Books
- Critics’ Lists: Summer 2011
Critics’ Lists: Summer 2011
Insane Science: 5 New Books That Explain The Brain
From religion to pornography, these brainy picks are sure to make for sizzling summer reads.
Critics’ Lists: Summer 2011
Back To Basics: 2011′s Simple, Summery Cookbooks
These standouts praise America’s culinary traditions from coast to coast and everywhere in between.
Critics’ Lists: Summer 2011
Summer Books 2011: The Complete List
See the titles critics are buzzing about. Get all of NPR’s summer book recommendations in one place!Comments
Please keep your community civil. All comments must follow the NPR.org Community rules and terms of use. See also the Community FAQ.You must be logged in to leave a comment. Login / Register
NPR reserves the right to read on the air and/or publish on its website or in any medium now known or unknown the e-mails and letters that we receive. We may edit them for clarity or brevity and identify authors by name and location. For additional information, please consult our Terms of Use.
Critics’ Lists: Summer 2011
Summer Books 2011: The Complete List
See the titles critics are buzzing about. Get all of NPR’s summer book recommendations in one place!
- Copyright 2011 NPR
- Terms of Use
- Privacy Policy
- Permissions
- Corrections
- Text-Only Site
- Help
- Contact Us
- Donate
- Our partner in public broadcasting
This entry was posted in The World is my Oyster, What in the World?, World Buzz, World Vews. Bookmark the permalink. Edit
I LOVE this newsletter! Despite the comments against the books choices you have included. I like that you give the reader the benefit of the doubt. I would like to think that educated people research, or simply contemplate, the validity of the methods used in books such as “A Billion Wicked Thoughts…” and can judge for themselves what to accept as valid. Isn’t it interesting to consider possibilities? Can an intelligent reader ask themselves if they can identify with any of the material as truth? We aren’t mindless drones condemned to believe all we read and hear — to the chagrin of right-winged politicians I might add. What happened to critical thinking/processing skills? Are those passe? I have read, or have in queue, at least one book from each newsletter since subscribing. I love the variety of books you review and I have read a few I would never have picked up otherwise. Thanks NPR!
Friday, June 10, 2011 9:57:55 AM
How sad that such a horribly researched and horrifically insulting piece of trash as A Billion Wicked Thoughts is included on this list. You have a couple of researchers who have been INSTRUCTED to remove their affiliation with Boston University, who showed nothing but disdain and ignorance for the communities they claim to study, and who practiced only the most backwards, most ludicrous kind of “science” without actually verifying their work (there is a HUGE difference between preserving anonymity for the sake of pure research and blindly gathering unverified data to satisfy an out-dated, misogynistic and homophobic hypothesis).
NPR, please, save yourselves from being aligned with this awful excuse for pseudo pop psychology. Here is a book that doesn’t deserve the exposure.
Thursday, June 09, 2011 6:39:10 PM
All this talk about the brain being responsible for this or responsible for that makes my head swim. Don’t these authors recognize that there is a difference between what is necessary and what is sufficient? Sure the brain is necessary when it comes to behaving, but without the rest of the organism and the contingencies that the natural and social environments provide, the brain is useless. Most of the interpretations of neuroscientists are “just so” stories.
Thursday, June 09, 2011 5:07:36 PM
With all the talk and books written on the brain, why do we hardly ever see any more than the slightest mention of the left handed people? It is obviously confirmed in medical science for many years now that left handed individuals comprise most of the greatest minds in history; yet as soon as I mention the list of all the greatest artists, musicians, scientists, thinkers, philosophers, higher level sports achievers [yet this is not necessarily measured in numbers of awarded scores], all the greatest leaders of the world as shown to be mostly or nearly all left handed people; the right handed counterparts try to discount the fact that this happens in the brain at 6 weeks in the fetal stage caused by high testosterone in the mothers amniotic fluid. It suppresses the left lateral side growth of the brain and the right lateral half outgrows the left, causing the left handed trait. You can force a child to write right-handed but it will not change the genius level brain that stays for life. Also anyone that says they are ambidextrous were most likely forced trained to right handed by types that rule on the “right hand of god” as [right stigmatized of our society.] Can others in medical science here confirm this? Possibly a little discussion about it in one of these books? Thank you.
Mark Seibold, Retired IT Tech, Artist-Astronomy Educator, Portland Oregon
Thursday, June 09, 2011 3:13:49 PM
I love Neuroscience and it’s one of my favorite subjects to study. With all this extra free time I have since school is out, I’ve been looking for new books to read. Thanks for these suggestions, they sound great.
Thursday, June 09, 2011 11:56:52 AM
@J Dub I don’t think you fully understand the reference. “Frank Booth” is the name of the psychopathic villain in David Lynch’s movie, “Blue Velvet.” Booth expresses contempt for Heineken while extolling Pabst. This is indeed perverse! (there were no microbreweries back then, so Heineken was one of the best widely available beers)
Thursday, June 09, 2011 8:37:38 AM
I sure would love to get Dick Cheney to sit down for a brain scan. I suspect he doesn’t spend a lot of time worrying about whether he is a psychopath.
Thursday, June 09, 2011 7:26:44 AM
@Frank Booth (Frank_Booth) I have to tell you, LOVE THE PABST BLUE RIBBON Avatar. We used to drink Pabst when we were teenagers some 20 years ago in the tough streets of NE Philadelphia. Thanks, I needed a good giggle!
Thursday, June 09, 2011 3:02:36 AM
Train the mind, the body will follow.
Wednesday, June 08, 2011 5:27:24 PM
@Thomas Weiss (TWeissMA), the two types of people are clearly NOT psychopaths. The psychopath doesn’t feel disgust, they are incapable of that. “Shallow affect also describes the psychopath’s tendency for genuine emotion to be short-lived, glib and egocentric, with an overall cold demeanor.” “Lacking in conscience and empathy, they take what they want and do as they please, violating social norms and expectations without guilt or remorse”. I may have not hit the nail on the head but there is a real difference. Read the book!
Ref: http://www.npr.org/2011/05/21/136462824/a-psychopath-walks-into-a-room-can-you-tell
Wednesday, June 08, 2011 7:55:49 AM