The Neurotourist: Postcards from the Edge of Brain Science, By Lone Frank

Philosophy? Politics? It’s all in the mind

Reviewed,Brandon Robshaw
Sunday 17 July 2011 00:00 BST
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Lone Frank is a journalist and science writer with a PhD in neurobiology, so she ought to be just the person to explain how advances in neuroscience are going to annex territory previously held by philosophers, and help to explain ethics, religion, happiness, politics, the self and the mind.

It's a fascinating subject, but Frank's treatment does not do it justice. She interviews various experts about what shows up on their EEG and PET scanners, writing in a facetious style which never quite succeeds in being funny, while the philosophical questions are under-explored. I did, however, enjoy learning that Frank has "a cute Corpus callosum".

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