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Review - Bulging Brains - Nick Arnold

Just think for a moment about opening someone's skull and poking around in their brains. Slight reaction along the lines of "yuck!"? It's not surprising - and that gives Nick Arnold a superb excuse to revolt and fascinate in equal measures. There's something ideally Horrible Science about looking into the brain, as evidenced by the display of equipment for brain surgery and even a short DIY brain surgery course.

Don't worry, though, if you are a squeamish adult - the majority of the book isn't about dissection but about the remarkable wonders the brain is capable of, and the relatively current theories on what's going on in there - with plenty of "we're not quite sure", because that's way it is with brains.

If that "relatively current" sounds like faint praise, it's just a fact of life. Whatever you write down about the brain, something about it is liable to be proved wrong a few years later. The only decidedly out of date bit in Arnold's book is the assertion that all your brain cells are in place when you are born. To quote Matt Ridley in his Nature via Nurture, "now it is certain that all primates, including human beings, can grow new cortical neurons in response to rich experience." There are also a couple of missed opportunities. We hear about horrible headache cures, along the cutting a hole in the head line, but not how modern painkillers work. And though there's a rather vague memory technique, it would have been nice to give readers the chance to amaze friends and relatives by memorising numbers using the much more specific and effective number rhyme chain method.

But hey, let's not be too hard on the man. It is a good book, it makes you think about what's going on in your skull (which is, of course going on in your skull...) and it's a topic that isn't covered enough at the moment. As usual the cartoons help a lot and are particularly (and appropriately) yucky.

Only in paperback

Reviewed by Martin O'Brien

Also available as a combined book (hardback) with Disgusting Digestion (US book is this combo):

* Our age range recommendation is an estimated guide, but individual readers outside the range could still enjoy the book!

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