The Future of the Brain: The Promise and Perils of Tomorrow's Neuroscience

Rose, Steven

ISBN 10: 0195154207 / ISBN 13: 9780195154207

Published by Oxford Univ Press, New York, 2005

About this Item

VG/VG. 344 pp. DJ rubbed. Shallow edge curling, creasing. Spine square, tight. Scattered yellow highlighting, marginal emphases. Good reading/research copy.

Seller Inventory # 9358

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Future of the Brain: The Promise and Perils of Tomorrow's Neuroscience
• Publisher: Oxford Univ Press, New York
• Publication Date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0195154207
• ISBN 13: 9780195154207
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

Brain repair, smart pills, mind-reading machines--modern neuroscience promises to soon deliver a remarkable array of wonders as well as profound insight into the nature of the brain. But these exciting new breakthroughs, warns Steven Rose, will also raise troubling questions about what it means to be human.
In The Future of the Brain, Rose explores just how far neuroscience may help us understand the human brain--including consciousness--and to what extent cutting edge technologies should have the power to mend or manipulate the mind. Rose first offers a panoramic look at what we now know about the brain, from its three-billion-year evolution, to its astonishingly rapid development in the embryo, to the miraculous process of infant development (how a brain becomes a human). More important, he shows what all this science can--and cannot--tell us about the human condition. He examines questions that still baffle scientists: if our genes are 99% identical to those of chimpanzees, if our brains are composed of identical molecules, arranged in pretty similar cellular patterns, how come we are so different? And he explores the potential threats and promises of new technologies and their ethical, legal, and social implications, wondering how far we should go in eliminating unwanted behavior or enhancing desired characteristics, focusing on the new "brain steroids" and on the use of Ritalin to control young children.
The Future of the Brain is a remarkable look at what the brain sciences are telling us about who we are and where we came from--and where we may be headed in the years ahead.

About the Author

Steven Rose is Professor of Biology and Director of the Brain and Behavior Research Group at The Open University, and is a Visiting Professor in the Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology at University College London. He has written or edited 15 books, including The Chemistry of Life, The Conscious Brain, The Making of Memory, and Not In Our Genes (with Richard Lewontin and Leo Kamin). He is a frequent radio and TV guest and has written for New York Times Book Review, New Scientist, and Times Literary Supplement.