Liars, Lovers, and Heroes: What the New Brain Science Reveals About How We Become Who We AreHarper Collins, 2003 M09 23 - 352 pages This book combines cutting-edge findings in neuroscience with examples from history and the headlines to introduce the new science of cultural biology, born of advances in brain imaging, computer modeling, and genetics. Doctors Quartz and Sejnowski show how both our noblest and darkest traits are rooted in brain systems so ancient that we share them with insects. They then demystify the dynamic engagement between brain and world that makes us something far beyond the sum of our parts. The authors show how our humanity unfolds in precise stages as brain and world engage on increasingly complex levels. Their discussion embraces shaping forces as ancient as climate change over millennia and events as recent as the terrorism and heroism of September 11, and offers intriguing answers to some of our most enduring questions, including why we live together, love, kill -- and sometimes lay down our lives for others. |
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... called the Modern Synthesis , evolution was reduced to a single precept : genes getting copies of themselves into the next generation . Inside all of us , then , are the ge- netic victors of a long and pitiless struggle . Governed by ...
... called Twinkie defenses and other biologi- cal gambits are just the latest signs that the assumption of free choice underlying the law is under stress and scrutiny . ' If the propensity to transgress society's laws is rooted in the ...
... called the science of the soul . Based on un- precedented advances of cognitive neuroscience , the outline of a view we call " cultural biology " is taking shape , forming the new science of who we are . Making 2 Connections M ichael ...
... called axons ( axons can be quite long - up to a meter in length ) , they use chemical signals to communicate with each other at junctions called " synapses . " Why is this ? In part , the reason is that cellular machinery was inherited ...
... called vesicles and release them from the sending cells , and receptor proteins on the receiving cells that selectively bind to the chemicals and convert the signal back to an electrical form . Nature tends to reuse old machinery for ...
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Hardwired Behavior: What Neuroscience Reveals about Morality Laurence Tancredi No preview available - 2005 |
The Science of Good and Evil: Why People Cheat, Gossip, Care, Share, and ... Michael Shermer,Dennis McFarland No preview available - 2004 |