Brain Safari
5-Minute Experiments to Explore the Space Between Your Ears
by Eric Haseltine
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Pub Date Feb 13 2018 | Archive Date Feb 13 2018
Greenleaf Book Group | Greenleaf Book Group Press
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Description
It seems our brains have a multitude of ways of doing things we have absolutely no idea about. In fact, Dr. Eric Haseltine builds a fascinating and convincing argument that our brains actually go out of their way to hide their actions from us. Through a series of fun, quick experiments that you can do by yourself, you will uncover these surprising secrets while on a thought-provoking adventure.
Much more “show” than “tell,” Brain Safari gives you direct, immediate experiences with the inner workings of your brain. Each of these experiences is designed to startle, amaze, and inform, and they don’t fall short of that goal. Dr. Haseltine brings decades of imaginative and informative experience to this book. It will leave you in awe of the complicated organ within your head.
Featured Reviews
Kasey C, Reviewer
Brain Safari is a non-fic book about your brain and your senses. Go through 40+ chapters where Dr. Haseltine, a neuroscientist that wrote for Discover and PsychologyToday explains how your brain works through simple experiments that will demonstrate your own cognitive biases, as well as gaps in your senses and how they can be tricked. Some of these trivia includes nerve signals about temperature travel at different speeds, or temperature sensing nerves are not evenly distributed. It also goes into visual and auditory illusions, and lots of other interesting tidbits about how our brain perceives things (how to find your visual blindspot, for instance).
However, the "safari" theme was not utilized successfully. Do you really perform experiments on safari's? I think a different metaphor is called for.
Also, some of the experiments are designed with two people in mind, and this can be difficult if the reader is alone. It may be better to only have experiments that do not need a partner, even if a chapter or two had to be excised, with the two-person experiments relegated to the back of the book as an appendix.
All in all, I enjoyed the book, as it was written in an engaging manner that simple enough even high schoolers or perhaps even middle schoolers should have no problem understanding it. But the book seems to be a bit of wasted metaphor about a safari. I'd say "expedition: human senses and perceptions" may be a more appropriate metaphor for the book and made it more engaging.
Jeanette B, Media/Journalist
I agree with other reviewers that the presentation of information in this book isn't as interesting as it could be. It's basically a textbook. However, there is a lot of solid, scientific info here and the experiments are great. The main idea is to get kids to learn about the way the human brain perceives things using hands-on experiments. I'm not an educator, but I would recommend this based on the content, if not the presentation. It's the kind of book I would have liked as a nerdy kid.
Disclosure: I received a digital ARC of this book in exchange for honest feedback.
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