A Wide Range

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Sandra Aamodt, Ph.D. and Sam Wang, Ph.D.

Welcome to Your Brain

Bloomsbury

Welcome to Your Brain: Why You Lose Your Car Keys but Never Forget How to Drive and Other Puzzles of Everyday Life is a national bestseller by two serious neuroscientists with a sense of humor (Aamodt was editor-in-chief of Nature Neuroscience and Wang is a professor at Princeton). Harvard’s Daniel Gilbert describes it as “a delightful and engaging romp through neuroscience by two of its leading lights—a marvelous collection of facts and findings that answer the questions we all have about our own minds.  If the human brain came with an owner’s manual, it might well look like this.”

Jeff Hawkins and Sandra Blakeslee

On Intelligence

Times Books/Henry Holt

Legendary innovator Jeff Hawkins -- inventor of the PalmPilot and the Treo smart phone – teams up with New York Times science writer Sandra Blakeslee to present a new way of thinking about the connections between human intelligence, the brain, and potential future technologies.  Neuroscientist Michael Merzenich calls it “a landmark book.  On Intelligence is the first clear exposition of what could be the long-awaited ‘great general theory’ of human brain function.”  Wired magazine selected it as the best book of 2004.

Andrew Newberg, M.D.

How God Changes Your Brain

Ballantine/Random House

“God is great—for your mental, physical, and spiritual health,” asserts Andrew Newberg, the director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Spirituality and the Mind.  He’s done the research to prove it in How God Changes Your Brain: Breakthrough Findings from a Leading Neuroscientist, a scientific look at the positive effects of spirituality on the human brain.  According to the Washington Post, “Newberg, perhaps America’s leading expert on the neurological basis of religion, brings a fresh perspective.  And [he] offers plenty to challenge skeptics and believers alike.”

Sandra Blakeslee and Matt Blakeslee

The Body Has a Mind of Its Own

Ballantine/Random House

Dubbed one of the Top Five Science Books of 2007 by the Washington Post, The Body Has a Mind of Its Own introduces the science and significance of body maps, the brain’s dynamic atlas to our physical selves that underlie our ability to move, touch, and interact with our surroundings. Written by New York Times science writer Sandra Blakeslee and her son, freelance science writer Matthew Blakeslee,  it received high praise from Nature, which says it presents “some of the most exciting discoveries in neuroscience…the authors showcase new and classic research on neural representation, without compromising accuracy.”

Alison Bass

Side Effects

Algonquin Books/Workman

Alison Bass’s Side Effects won the 2009 Science in Society Journalism Awards, sponsored by the National Association of Science Writers. Bass tells the story of how pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline systematically misled physicians and consumers about the safety and efficacy of Paxil, a popular antidepressant. "It's a very complicated issue, and the author conveyed this like a mystery story," said one of the judges, noting that, "Her investigations led to changes in policy in many areas of public health, not only nationally but internationally." The awards are intended to encourage critical, probing work and are especially prestigious because they are judged by accomplished peers.

Steven Scott Gubser

The Little Book of String Theory

Princeton University Press

According to Library Journal, “Gubser does a masterly job of introducing string theory in simple terms and without using math. His goal is not to convert people to the cause but to help them better understand the ideas. Cars on a freeway, the vibration of piano strings, and buoys in the ocean are among the examples from everyday life used to explain difficult concepts. This concise yet clear introduction to a conceptually difficult topic is recommended for lay readers in physics and for popular science collections.”