In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind |  | Author: Eric R. Kandel
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
Buy Used: $8.66
as of 7/31/2010 21:32 CDT details
You Save: $11.29 (57%)
New (47) Used (32) from $8.66
Seller: hiskingdombooks
Rating:  63 reviews
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Pages: 528
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.5 x 1.1
ISBN: 0393329372
Dewey Decimal Number: 570
EAN: 9780393329377
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
| |
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
| |
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
“A stunning book.”—Oliver Sacks Charting the intellectual history of the emerging biology of mind, Eric R. Kandel illuminates how behavioral psychology, cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and molecular biology have converged into a powerful new science of mind. This science now provides nuanced insights into normal mental functioning and disease, and simultaneously opens pathways to more effective healing.
Driven by vibrant curiosity, Kandel’s personal quest to understand memory is threaded throughout this absorbing history. Beginning with his childhood in Nazi-occupied Vienna, In Search of Memory chronicles Kandel’s outstanding career from his initial fascination with history and psychoanalysis to his groundbreaking work on the biological process of memory, which earned him the Nobel Prize.
A deft mixture of memoir and history, modern biology and behavior, In Search of Memory traces how a brilliant scientist’s intellectual journey intersected with one of the great scientific endeavors of the twentieth century: the search for the biological basis of memory. .
|
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 63
 Pure candy for us science types May 5, 2006
Aleksandar Totic (San Francisco, CA USA)
124 out of 128 found this review helpful
"The search for memory" is the best book I've read this year. I've studied Artificial Intelligence in the early 90's, and love science, and a good story. For someone with this background, this book is pure candy.
Kandel's life is intertwined with his attempt to understand what makes us tick. He writes about the scars that Nazi occupation has left on a young Jewish boy in Vienna. These scars lead to a passionate quest for "why", why do people act as they do. Luckily for us, Kandel's attempt to answer this question leads him on a quest that has him surfing the perfect wave of the brain research his whole life. And in this book, we get to experience the wave with him.
For me, science books are often either too technical, or too mushy. This one manages to hit the golden middle ground. After reading it, I have a lot better understanding of the brain & memory in general, and some topics I was not really looking to understand: genetics & cell biology.
The book is well organized. Kandel's personal memories mix with science and keep things from being too dry. The discoveries he describes come alive with the personalities that made them. And when you forget the exact meaning of some technical term such as "modulating circuit", there is a great glossary appendix to refresh your memory.
And the topic of the book is so fascinating. Memory is at the core of who we are, why do remember our summer holiday from 1972 so well, and forget what we had for breakfast today. Science, that invites you to think those grand philosophical thoughts.
The book ends around 2004 with author applying his work to Alzeheimer's disease. From Kristalnacht to biotech in a lifetime, what a journey.
The only thing I wanted to ask Mr. Kandel was how do we manage to store so many memories. I understand how a single experience is stored, but what ties a sequence of experiences together?
Highly recommended for science types, and those who like to mix biology & philosophy.
An inspiring look at the emergence of a new science May 9, 2006
Vladimir Miskovic
56 out of 58 found this review helpful
"In Search of Memory" deftly mixes auto-biography with history of neuroscience and selected summaries of the cellular bases of learning and memory. It traces the life of famed neuroscientist, Eric Kandel, beginning with his early childhood in Vienna, his expatriation following Nazi takeover, his prosperous scientific career in the States and ending with his invitation to Stockholm to receive the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Kandel tells us how he switched interests early on in his life, from history to psychoanalysis (which continued to serve as a foundation for his future scientific endeavors) and finally, to the molecular bases of behavior. As a young medical student, entering a research laboratory for the first time, Kandel was initially disappointed that he could not immediately look for a neuroanatomical basis of Freud's structural psychic apparatus. Instead, Kandel began studying nervous systems in a piecemeal fashion - one cell at a time. Moving from mammalian to invertebrate specimens, Kandel finally settled on his model organism, Aplysia californica (a sea snail), in order to pursue his studies on the cellular foundations of learning and memory. This line of research would eventually lead Kandel to make groundbreaking discoveries in the field and decades later, to set up a biotechnology firm (`Memory Pharmaceuticals'), to explore ways of chemically improving memory in human subjects.
Throughout the book, Kandel offers the reader a unique and intimate look into how the emerging fields of molecular biology, neuroscience and psychology were coalescing and contributing to the emergence of a new science of mind. For anyone with interest and a background in this field, Kandel's book is a fascinating history lesson and an important source of inspiration. However, the book is also accessible to general, educated readers. The science is not likely to be too overwhelming for someone without a background and Kandel eases the reader into it gently.
A great book about biology of mind November 15, 2006
Emil B (Sydney, Australia)
40 out of 41 found this review helpful
This is an extraordinary book about neuroscience , physiology, molecular biology and neurobiology and also about people and history. I bought the book with the intention to satisfy my curiosity in the latest developments in the science of mind. I was ready to handle an experience of reading through dry, complex theories and do some hard work of extracting information that I can make sense with my limited knowledge. Surprisingly, the book has none of that; it is written so well, as if it is the transcript of an one on one conversation between friends, so captivating, so clear and so human. I could not let go of it, reading until small hours when reluctantly, I had to go to sleep so next day I could show up at work in a reasonable shape.
The book interweaves threads of science, personal life stories, career, friends, Jewish history, Nobel prize ceremony and biotechnology. The main story is about neuroscience, with emphasis on personal scientific work that culminated with Nobel prize award in 2000. The book can be divided in following sections: personal life, history of neuroscience and molecular biology, short term memory, long term memory, complex behavior and DNA, consciousness, mental illnesses, the experience of receiving Nobel prize, Austria and its relationship with Jewish community in the past and today and an insight analysis of trends in biotechnology from a business point of view.
The book is focused on the biology of short term and long term memory. Eric does an excellent job explaining the evolution of neuroscience up to the point when he started his career, so the reader has a good understanding of contemporary issues and of the formation of neurobiology. I liked a lot the fact that Eric Kandel kept the level of detail in balance and put the explanations in the perspective of human evolution. I loved how he classifies the mechanisms of learning as being either Kantian or Lockean: we are a combination of genetics and learned life experience. It is this philosophical approach that is constantly felt through the whole book that gave me a sense of direction and purpose of his work. His logic is very neutral (objective), in the sense that he refers to our mind as the result of an evolution based on laws of physics, chemistry and genetics. This is a stark contrast with the approach of psychoanalysts during most part of the 20th century that puts so much emphasis on personal interpretation based on patient confessions that transcends biological reality . This is another aspect of the book that astounded me: despite the fact that he is so methodical about deciphering the way the mind works using a reductionist approach, thus implying that mind is a complex and large collection of simple neuronal structures, he is so human when he talks about his family and friends. He talks a great deal in an emotional way (happy, sad or humorous) about his friends, mentors, colleagues and students. His emotions, infinitely more complex than any of Aplysia's rituals, in a way, are a reminder of the huge work that still needs to be done until we will understand how our neurons can create such sophisticated behavior.
The book talks in great detail about the structure and functions of neurons, with lots of details about how electrical and chemical signals work at the synaptic level. Eric Kandel did a great job describing the molecular and ionic hypothesis, signaling, protein manufacturing, genetics and their role in memory. However, I thought that it helped me a lot my prior understanding of how genes expression works, because the book does not provide much assistance in that area. This is especially important for readers who are more interested in aspects of long term memory and complex human behavior.
I found fascinating the section dedicated to consciousness. As usual, Eric takes the reader through the history of genetics and then spending more pages on the work of Francis Crick and Christof Koch and current developments.
Eric closes his book with a personal analysis of the current state of the science of mind, what is next and his sharing with the readers of how one should plan a career in general, based on his personal experience. Excellent book!
An interwoven tale of science, history, and art August 8, 2006
Michael M. Halassa (Boston, MA)
18 out of 18 found this review helpful
Eric Kandel is one of the biggest icons in modern Neuroscience. His work on the sea slug, Aplysia, has given us the first glimpse on how nerve cells store memories. In over 30 years of hard work and creativity, Dr Kandel and his colleagues gave the scientific community a mechanistic understanding of how key molecules in nerve cells act during learning and how they might contribute to memory storage. Dr Kandel recieved the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2000 as an acknowledgement for his monumental contributions.
When I picked up this book, I was familiar with most of that. I was introduced to Eric Kandel, the scientist, through neuroscience coursework. I was quite familiar with his work both on Aplysia and mice. I thought that reading this book will be more of that; an overview of the science that lead to such discoveries.
I quickly realized, flipping through its pages at a local bookshop, that "In Search of Memory" was much more. A few minutes after I started reading it, I decided to buy it. I could hardly put down afterwards; it was very captivating.
This book is an elegant synthesis of Eric Kandel's personal life and scientific career. It is very well written in a style that, at times, allows the reader to feel that he or she is part of a particular experience that Dr Kandel describes.
Reading this book, one is introduced to Eric Kandel's early childhood in Vienna at the time when Hitler's army had just invaded the city. His memories of the time deftly describe not only his suffering as a Jew, but also reflect on an ideology of hate (Nazism) that allowed its followers to undertake the biggest genocide of modern history: The holocaust, which "Erich" and his family narrowly escaped. The fact that people can behave in such a manner sparked Dr Kandel's interest in human psychology and behavior, an interest that later made him seek training as a psychoanalyst. From psychoanalysis, Dr Kandel sought a more fundamental understanding of the mind, which turned him into an experimental neuroscientists and later into one of the major contributors to the "New Science of Mind".
Reading this book was a very rewarding experience. One clearly sees how working on a boundary of two disciplines can lead to many new insights. Dr Kandel used the technical advances laid down by giants like Hodgkin, Huxley, Katz, Eccles, and Sherrington along with his knowledge of behaviorist methodology to ask questions on how simple neural circuits learn and store memories.
One thing that I particularly gained from reading this book is the distinction made between "day science" and "night science". Day science is the kind of science that one undertakes when the scientific problem is clear and the methods to investigate it have been developed. Night science, on the other hand, involves thinking of what is far beyond our current understanding; a grand problem that will advance our knowledge of a poorly understood but a very important problem (like memory for instance). One needs not only to develop the methods, but to actually identify the problem in a testable way. I found that distinction fascinating.
I was particularly pleased of how Dr Kandel acknowledged not only his mentors and colleagues, but also his students and postdoctoral fellows. These acknowledgment did not appear in an acknowledgment section, but rather appeared during the relevant sections of his narration. That put things in perspective and gave the feel that these people were actually very much part of his life story.
The chapter on consciousness was a bit brief and failed to mention the work of Guilio Tononi whose work I consider to be monumental in that field. Tononi has constructed a rigorous theoretical analysis of consciousness that gives insight into how interconnectivity in the brain can lead to the emergence of consciousness. His theory has been tested and partially validated in a series of experiments carried out by his group and published in the journal Nature.
This is a minor point, however, and overall the book is a great treat. One is exposed to an interwoven tale of science, history and art. I highly recommend reading it for anyone interested in learning about life through the eye of a distinguished human being.
A twin- journey in Memory June 5, 2006
Shalom Freedman (Jerusalem,Israel)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
Eric Kandel is a Nobel Prize winning neuroscientist whose pioneering researches helped further the understanding of the biological basis of Memory. In this work which has been described by a number of reviewers as certain to take it place on the shelf of the great scientific biographical literature , Kandel tells the story of his own scientific development as part of the larger story of the twentieth - century development of Brain Science. He also tells the story of how his own personal journey as a refugee from Nazi - taken- over Vienna through rescue and education in New York, and then at Harvard and Columbia .
Kandel is one of those kinds of scientists whose aim is a fundamental understanding of their area of study. He originally at Harvard aimed to be a historian, but then thought to be a Freudian psychoanalyst. At Columbia however he met with the then Dean of American Neuroscients Harry Grundfest who instead of rejecting outright the grandiose plans of his young student to provide the biological basis for Freudian theories , instructed him that he had to begin to work a 'cell at a time.'
This approach eventually led Kandel when in Paris to begin working with the Aphylsia , whose neurons are larger than any other living being. Through this work Kandel came to develop an understanding of the biological basis of memory which would center on neural networks and their connections. For his discoveries in this area Kandel would later go on to win a Nobel Prize.
But Kandel, as his autobiography makes clear is one of those special Scientists, like Freud himself, who had broad interest in other areas of Life and Mind, including Music and Art. And the deep Culture and broad intellectual scope is reflected throughout this volume.
For those who would understand the development of one of the most exciting areas of present Scientific research, and one of its most able practicioneers this is a highly recommended work.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 63
|
|
|
|
