The No-Brainer Brain Explainer: How Animals Think, from Humans to Birdbrains

Welcome to the Crab Museum's guide to the incredible living machine that is the brain!

Through unbelievable facts and hilarious jokes, The No-Brainer Brain Explainer explores the smallest, biggest, toughest, foldiest, brainiest brains in the animal kingdom.

Take a tour through the imagination of dung beetles, marvel at cockroach brains that are spread all throughout their body, and meet octopuses with their nine brains. Discover the brains behind massive insect colonies, flocking birds and intelligent fungal networks, and of course, the smartest brain of all, according to itself: yours! You'll also uncover:

• What brains are made of and why they're important
• Where to find your second brain
• How brains help us time travel
• The fruitfly brain, the most well-studied brain ever
• The evolution of brains
• What makes a brain 'intelligent'
• The limits of brains, like confusion, phobias and mental wellbeing
• Much, much more...

Accompanied throughout by quirky illustrations, this book asks BIG questions about consciousness, types of intelligence, language, co-operation and other brainy topics, perfect for any young scientist, animal lover or just plain brainiac.

Need your brain explained? This is a no-brainer!

Crab Museum, Margate, is run by Ned, Bertie and Chase, but more importantly, it is Europe's first and only museum dedicated to the humble decapod. Crabs are a sideways-scuttling guide not just to the history of life on Earth, but also its future – from capitalism to climate change, there's nothing that can't be understood through the lens of these fascinating crustaceans. With inventive exhibits that combine humour, science and philosophy, the award-winning Crab Museum pursues the noble claws of seeking to understand the natural world, and through it, ourselves.

Bruno Valasse has been designing, drawing and making books, covers, posters and illustrations for over 10 years, working with clients such as Tundra, Storey, the Mexican Film Academy, Penguin Random House, Santillana, Ediciones Castillo / Macmillan, Harper Collins and the Centro Cultural de España MX. He recently graduated from the Children’s Books Illustration MA at the Cambridge School of Arts, ARU. Bruno's first book, Shine, was released in 2024.