Soul Made Flesh: How The Secrets of the Brain were uncovered in Seventeenth Century England

Description

Praised by historians (Lisa Jardine, Judith Flanders, Ross King), novelists (Neal Stephenson) and scientists (Oliver Sacks, Steven Pinker), this is an acclaimed work of historical biography in the tradition of The Lunar Men. At the beginning of Europe's turbulent seventeenth century, no one knew how the brain worked. By the century's close, the science of the brain had taken root, helping to overturn many common misconceptions about the human body as well as to unseat centuries-old philosophies of man and God. Presiding over this evolution was the founder of modern neurology, Thomas Willis, a fascinating, sympathetic, even heroic figure who stands at the centre of an extraordinary group of scientists and philosophers known as the 'Oxford circle'. Chronicled here in vivid detail are their groundbreaking revelations and often gory experiments that first enshrined the brain as the chemical engine of reason, emotion, and madness - indeed as the very seat of the human soul.

Carl Zimmer writes the monthly essay in the US magazine Natural History, having inherited this position from Stephen Jay Gould.