Haystack Full of Needles: A memoir of research on mechanisms of memory in the decades that defined neuroscience by Louis Neal Irwin
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1664140603
How do we store information in the brain? Is memory a thing in a place, like a specific molecule in a particular cell? Or does learning require a process in a population, like neurons firing in a specific pattern for each experience? This combination of memoir and history tells the story of how the mechanisms of memory were gradually revealed, through biographical vignettes of the scientists who set out to solve the riddle of memory, including the author?s own efforts as he was coming of age as a scientist. It shows how individual goals intertwine with the technologies at hand to push scientific knowledge forward, often erratically, and always in the context of social forces and private ups and downs. Not only a compelling personal story with the war in Vietnam, civil rights movement, and downfall of two presidents as backdrop, this is a lucid explanation of brain function for the nonscientist and valuable contribution to the history of science in the decades that saw neuroscience join molecular biology as the marquee biomedical accomplishments of the twentieth century
About the author
Writer, neuroscientist, astrobiologist, educator, and political activist. Born in West Texas and raised in San Antonio, now current resident of Denver. Former Professor and Chair of Biological Sciences at the University of Texas at El Paso. Previously lived in Lubbock TX, Lawrence KS, New York City, Detroit, and Newton MA, serving four terms there on the Board of Aldermen. Recently a Court Appointed Special Advocate for abused and neglected children, and current chair of the Public Policy Committee of the Democratic Party of Denver. Co-author of “Life in the Universe” and “Cosmic Biology”, and author of “Scotophobin”
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