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Books of Cuurent Interest to Neurobiology Students
Kandel, Eric (2006) "In Search of Memory: The new science of mind" . W.W. Norton, Inc. New York.
A captivating mix of autobiography, neuroscience, and history tracing the evolution of a new theory for mind based in molecular biology and neuroscience, superbly written by Nobel Laureate Eric Kandel.
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Zimmer, Carl (2004) "Soul made flesh: The discovery of the brain and how it changed the world." Free Press, NY. An historical account of the dawn of Neurology and the science of the brain, by New York Times writer, Carl Zimmer. A chronicle of the life and times of Thomas Willis (1621-1675), an English physician and Professor at Oxford University, living in the turbulent mid 15th century England. Willis charted the anatomy of the brain, mapped and numbered the cranial nerves, described the blood supply to the brain, and founded the science of Neurology and Psychiatry. Zimmer's vivid account makes for a great read. |
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Sacks, Oliver (1970) "The man who mistook his wife for a hat: And other clinical tales. Touchstone Press. NY. One of the finest writers in clinical neuroscience, Oliver Sacks, a former A. D. White Professor at Large, recounts case histories of persons with sometimes bizzare, but always illuminating distortions in memories, perceptions, and intellect. Told in the most sympathetic way by an extraordinary writer, physician, neuroscientist and humanist. |
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Sacks, Oliver (2007) Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain. Alfred A. Knopf. New York. This best seller, one of the top non-fiction works of 2007, this is a fascinating story of the curious effects of music on our brains by one of the finest writers in neuroscience. |
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Hille, Bertil (2001) Ion channels of Excitable Membranes. 3rd ed. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, Mass.
An advanced textbook on the molecular basis of nervous excitation which covers the broad sweep of excitable cells in biological systems. Starting with the squid axon and Hodgkin and Huxley, where much of cellular neurobiology starts, it takes us on a journey through the mechanisms of the action potential in neurons to the big picture of ion channels in other cells: animals, protists, bacteria. The book shows how membrane receptors play a vital role in cell signaling. We see ion channels from a molecular, a structural, and a functional viewpoint. This landmark book should be on the "must-read" list of all advanced students in neuroscience.
Bertil Hille is a cell physiologist, a neuroscientist and a Professor at the University of Washington, Seattle.
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Ramón y Cajal, Santiago (1989 reprint). Reflections of My Life.s MIT Press. Cambridge.
This astonishing autobiography of Ramón y Cajal was originally published in English translation as part of the 1937 Journal of the American Philosophical Society. It is here reprinted in paperback with a forward by neuroscientist, W. Maxwell Cowan. Cowan points to fewer than a handful of autobiographies of biologists even worth reading, and this is one of them. This volume "conveys the excitement and energy of Cajal's life and endeavors, the liveliness and flamboyance of his engagements with the microscope...noting that almost every important conceptual issue in neurobiology was foreshadowed in Cajal's work: the initial description of the climbing fibers of the cerebellum, the discovery of the growth cone, the concept of the "dynamic polarity" of the neuron in anticipation of the later discovery of axonal transport, and the prediction that new synapses may be formed throughout life to serve as a physical basis for learning and memory" -- from the publisher.
No neurobiologist could read this book and fail to be inspired by the Life of Ramón y Cajal.
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