V. S. Ramachandran

John, aged sixty, suffered a stroke and recovered fully, except in one respect: although he can see perfectly, he can no longer recognise faces, even his own reflection in a mirror. Whenever Francesca touches a particular texture, she experiences a vivid emotion: denim = extreme sadness;

This fascinating book reveals what we learn about human nature when the brain goes wrong. It looks at why the human brain is so unique and examines how it became so complex.

V. S. Ramachandran is at the forefront of his field-so much so that Richard Dawkins dubbed him the "Marco Polo of neuroscience." Now, in a major new work, Ramachandran sets his sights on the mystery of human uniqueness. Taking us to the frontiers of neurology, he reveals what baffling and extreme case studies can teach us about normal brain function and how it evolved. Synesthesia becomes a window into the brain mechanisms that make some of us more creative than others. And autism for which Ramachandran opens a new direction for treatment gives us a glimpse of the aspect of being human that we understand least: self-awareness. Ramachandran tackles the most exciting and controversial topics in neurology with a storyteller's eye for compelling case studies and a researcher's flair for new approaches to age-old questions. Tracing the strange links between neurology and behavior, this book unveils a wealth of clues into the deepest mysteries of the human brain."

Offers insights into human consciousness in an entertaining tour of the ultimate frontier - the thoughts in our heads. This text is made up of five investigations of the greatest mysteries of the brain. It shows how amputees feel pain in limbs they no longer have, and walks us through how what we see determines our thoughts.

This comprehensive book containing essential information on the applicability of thermal analysis techniques to evaluate inorganic and organic materials in construction technology should serve as a useful reference for the scientist, engineer, construction technologist, architect, manufacturer, and user of construction materials, standard-writing bodies, and analytical chemists. The material scientists at the National Research Council of Canada have established one of the best thermal analysis laboratories in the world. Various types of thermal analysis techniques have been applied successfully to the investigation of inorganic and organic construction materials. These studies have provided important information on the characterization of raw as well as finished materials, quality control, quantitative estimation, interrelationships between physical, chemical, mechanical, and durability characteristics. Information on the application of thermal analysis to construction materials is dispersed in literature and hence the IRC scientists embarked on producing a handbook, the first of its kind, incorporating the latest knowledge available in this field of activity. Almost all important construction materials have been included.

Neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran is internationally renowned for uncovering answers to the deep and quirky questions of human nature that few scientists have dared to address. His bold insights about the brain are matched only by the stunning simplicity of his experiments -- using such low-tech tools as cotton swabs, glasses of water and dime-store mirrors. In Phantoms in the Brain, Dr. Ramachandran recounts how his work with patients who have bizarre neurological disorders has shed new light on the deep architecture of the brain, and what these findings tell us about who we are, how we construct our body image, why we laugh or become depressed, why we may believe in God, how we make decisions, deceive ourselves and dream, perhaps even why we're so clever at philosophy, music and art. Some of his most notable cases: A woman paralyzed on the left side of her body who believes she is lifting a tray of drinks with both hands offers a unique opportunity to test Freud's theory of denial. A man who insists he is talking with God challenges us to ask: Could we be "wired" for religious experience? A woman who hallucinates cartoon characters illustrates how, in a sense, we are all hallucinating, all the time.Dr. Ramachandran's inspired medical detective work pushes the boundaries of medicine's last great frontier -- the human mind -- yielding new and provocative insights into the "big questions" about consciousness and the self.

â??Phantoms in The Brainâ?? takes a revolutionary new approach to theories of the brain, from one of the worldâ??s leading experimental neurologists.