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We like to believe that we exist as independent selves at the centre of a subjective universe; that we are discrete individuals acting autonomously in the world with an unchanging inner self that persists throughout our lifetime. This is an illusion. On a physical, psychological and cultural level, we are all much more intertwined than we know: we cannot use our bodies to define our independent existence because most of our 37 trillion cells have such a short lifespan that we are essentially made anew every few weeks; the molecules that make up our bodies have already been component parts of countless other organisms, from ancient plants to dinosaurs; we are more than half non-human, in the form of bacteria, fungi and viruses, whose genes influence our moods and even manipulate our behaviour; and we cannot define ourselves by our minds, thoughts and actions, because these mainly originate from other people - the result of memes passing between us, existing before, after and beyond our own lifespans. Professor of Ecology Tom Oliver makes the compelling argument that although this illusion of individualism has helped us to succeed as a species, tackling the big global challenges ahead now relies on our seeing beyond this mindset and understanding the complex connections between us. THE SELF DELUSION is an explosive, powerful and inspiring book that brings to life the overwhelming evidence contradicting the perception we have of ourselves as independent beings - and why understanding this may well be the key to a better future.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Prologue : One bright May morning 3 May 1983 : Hollywood Hills
• Cactus mysteries 2000 BCE-present : Andean South America
• The Devil's root : 1519-present : Mexico
• Making medicine 1880-93 : Oklahoma, Texas, Detroit, Berlin
• Brilliant visions : 1895-98 : Washington DC, Philadelphia, Leipzig, London
• Higher powers : 1899-1918 : London, Utah, New York, Taos, Oklahoma
• Der meskalinrausch :1919-28 : Vienna, Heidelberg, Chicago, Côte d'Azur
• Profane illuminations : 1929-36 Warsaw, Bucharest, Paris, Berlin, Mexico
• M-substance : 1936-52 : Oklahoma, Taos, London, Hamburg, Basel, Saskatchewan
• The doors blown open : 1953-59 : California, Wisconsin, Mexico, Paris, Atlantic City, Oxford
• Tripping with mescalito : 1960-2014 : New York, California, Texas, Arizona, Las Vegas
• Epilogue : under a Comanche Moon : 7-8 October 1917 : Oklahoma.

A definitive history of mescaline that explores its mind-altering effects across cultures, from ancient America to Western modernity Mescaline became a popular sensation in the mid-twentieth century through Aldous Huxley's The Doors of Perception, after which the word "psychedelic" was coined to describe it. Its story, however, extends deep into prehistory: the earliest Andean cultures depicted mescaline-containing cacti in their temples. Mescaline was isolated in 1897 from the peyote cactus, first encountered by Europeans during the Spanish conquest of Mexico. During the twentieth century it was used by psychologists investigating the secrets of consciousness, spiritual seekers from Aleister Crowley to the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, artists exploring the creative process, and psychiatrists looking to cure schizophrenia. Meanwhile peyote played a vital role in preserving and shaping Native American identity. Drawing on botany, pharmacology, ethnography, and the mind sciences and examining the mescaline experiences of figures from William James to Walter Benjamin to Hunter S. Thompson, this is an enthralling narrative of mescaline's many lives.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

"A Stanford psychologist offers a bold new understanding of empathy, and shows how we can expand our circle of care, even in these divisive times Empathy is in short supply. Isolation and tribalism are rampant. We struggle to understand people who aren't just like us, but find it easy to hate them. Studies show that we are less caring than we were even thirty years ago. In 2006, Barack Obama said that the United States is suffering from an "empathy deficit." Since then, things only seem to have gotten worse. It doesn't have to be this way. In this groundbreaking book, Jamil Zaki argues that empathy is not a fixed trait--something we're born with or not--but rather a skill that we can all strengthen through effort. Drawing on both classic and cutting-edge research, including experiments from his own lab, Zaki shows how we can harness this new mindset to overcome toxic cultural divisions. He also tells the stories of people who are living these principles--fighting for kindness in the most difficult of circumstances. We meet a former neo-Nazi who is now helping extract people from hate groups, ex-prisoners discussing novels with the judge who sentenced them, Washington police officers changing their culture to decrease violence among their ranks, and NICU nurses fine-tuning their empathy so that they don't succumb to burnout. Written with clarity and passion, The War for Kindness is an inspiring call to action. The future of our society may depend on whether we accept the challenge"-- Provided by publisher.
"A Stanford psychologist offers a bold new understanding of empathy, revealing it to be a skill, not a fixed trait, and showing, through science and stories, how we can all become more empathetic"-- Provided by publisher.

• The cosmic laboratory of baby training
• Women's work
• Meet yourself
• An unbroken series of successful gestures
• Desperate amateurs
• The science of man
• The personality is political
• Sheep and buck
• A perfect spy
• People's capitalism
• The house party approach to testing
• That horrible woman
• The synchronicity of life and death
• One in a million
• True believers.

"An unprecedented history of the personality test that has achieved cult-like devotion, devised a century ago by a pair of homemakers and found today in boardrooms, classrooms, and beyond. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is the most popular personality test in the world. It has been harnessed by Fortune 100 companies, universities, hospitals, churches, and the military. Its language--of extraversion vs. introversion, thinking vs. feeling--has inspired online dating platforms and Buzzfeed quizzes alike. And yet despite the test's widespread adoption, experts in the field of psychometric testing, a $500 million industry, struggle to account for its success--no less to validate its results. How did the Myers-Briggs test insinuate itself into our jobs, our relationships, our Internet, our lives? First conceived in the 1920s by the mother-daughter team of Katherine Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers, a pair of aspiring novelists and devoted homemakers, the Myers-Briggs was designed to bring the gospel of Carl Jung to the masses. But it would take on a life of its own, reaching from the smoke-filled boardrooms of mid-century New York to Berkeley, California, where it was honed against some of the twentieth century's greatest creative minds. It would travel across the world to London, Zurich, Cape Town, Melbourne, and Tokyo; to elementary schools, nunneries, wellness retreats, and the closed-door corporate training sessions of today. Drawing from original reporting and never-before-published documents, The Personality Brokers examines nothing less than the definition of the self--our attempts to grasp, categorize, and quantify our personalities. Surprising and absorbing, the book, like the test at its heart, considers the timeless question: What makes you you"-- Provided by publisher.

• PART I. FOUNDATIONS OF MEMORY SYSTEMS-- PART II. ARCHITECTURE OF VERTEBRATE MEMORY-- PART III. PRIMATE AUGMENTATIONS-- PART IV. HOMININ ADAPTATIONS-- PART V. DECONSTRUCTING AND RECONSTRUCTING MEMORY SYSTEMS.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Current theories about human memory have been shaped by clinical observations and animal experiments. This doctrine holds that the medial temporal lobe subserves one memory system for explicit or declarative memories, while the basal ganglia subserves a separate memory system for implicit or procedural memories, including habits. Cortical areas outside the medial temporal lobe are said to function in perception, motor control, attention, or other aspects of executive function, but not in memory. 'The Evolution of Memory Systems' advances dramatically different ideas on all counts. It proposes that several memory systems arose during evolution and that they did so for the same general reason: to transcend problems and exploit opportunities encountered by specific ancestors at particular times and places in the distant past. Instead of classifying cortical areas in terms of mutually exclusive perception, executive, or memory functions, the authors show that all cortical areas contribute to memory and that they do so in their own ways-using specialized neural representations. The book also presents a proposal on the evolution of explicit memory. According to this idea, explicit (declarative) memory depends on interactions between a phylogenetically ancient navigation system and a representational system that evolved in humans to represent one's self and others. As a result, people embed representations of themselves into the events they experience and the facts they learn, which leads to the perception of participating in events and knowing facts. 'The Evolution of Memory Systems' is an important new work for students and researchers in neuroscience, psychology, and biology.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• The Human Puzzle The breakdown of self Cooperation and life LifeYour physical self Genes Simple cells - prokaryotes 17 More complex cells - eukaryotes 18 Multi-cellularity 20 Mobile eco-systems 24Your psychological self 27 A soulless existence 29 Majority rule 31 Surely there is something more? 31Easily explicable cooperation and natural selection 35 Mutual gain 36 Natural selection 38 Proximate and ultimate explanations 41 Group selection 42 Behavioral genetics 43Family 46 Warning calls 50 Eusociality - ants, wasps and bees 51 A challenge 54 Eusociality - termites and naked mole rats 57 Kin selection in humans 58Friends 61 The prisoners' dilemma 61 Examples from the animal world? 65 The social brain 69 Other possible genetic explanations of cooperation 71 We are not them: about our closest relatives 73 Reciprocity in humans 75Humanity - the paragon of cooperation? 78 Games of cooperation 81 A huge mistake? 83 Cultural group selection 85 Nature or nurture 86 Cultural explanations for extreme cooperation 89Language 95 The structure of human language 98 The evolution of language 99 The green beards of language 102 The second replicator 105The last piece of the puzzle? - Cooperation over our heads 108< A slow history 111 Cultural evolution 116 Cultural evolutionary explanations of cooperation 125 Networks 127 The software 130Epilogue: The human super organism 133 Characteristics of synergistic cooperation 136 How to harness idea collectives 137References 140Notes 148.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

This book takes the reader on a journey, navigating the enigmatic aspects of cooperation; a journey that starts inside the body and continues via our thoughts to the human super-organism. Cooperation is one of life's fundamental principles. We are all made of parts - genes, cells, organs, neurons, but also of ideas, or `memes'. Our societies too are made of parts - us humans. Is all this cooperation fundamentally the same process? From the smallest component parts of our bodies and minds to our complicated societies, everywhere cooperation is the organizing principle. Often this cooperation has emerged because the constituting parts have benefited from the interactions, but not seldom the cooperating units appear to lose on the interaction. How then to explain cooperation? How can we understand our intricate societies where we regularly provide small and large favors for people we are unrelated to, know, or even never expect to meet again? Where does the idea come from that it is right to risk one's life for country, religion or freedom? The answers seem to reside in the two processes that have shaped humanity: biological and cultural evolution.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Preface
• 1. Pinning Down Potential
• 2. Pretend Genes
• 3. Pretend Intelligence
• 4. Real Genes, Real Intelligence
• 5. Intelligent Development
• 6. How the Brain Makes Potential
• 7. A Creative Cognition
• 8. Potential Between Brains: Social Intelligence
• 9. Human Intelligence
• 10. Promoting Potential
• 11. The Problems of Education Are Not Genetic
• 12. Summary and Conclusions Notes Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

For countless generations people have been told that their potential as humans is limited and fundamentally unequal. The social order, they have been assured, is arranged by powers beyond their control. More recently the appeal has been to biology, specifically the genes, brain sciences, the concept of intelligence, and powerful new technologies. Reinforced through the authority of science and a growing belief in bio-determinism, the ordering of the many for the benefit of a few has become more entrenched. Yet scientists are now waking up to the influence of ideology on research and its interpretation. In Genes, Brains, and Human Potential, Ken Richardson illustrates how the ideology of human intelligence has infiltrated genetics, brain sciences, and psychology, flourishing in the vagueness of basic concepts, a shallow nature-versus-nurture debate, and the overhyped claims of reductionists. He shows how ideology, more than pure science, has come to dominate our institutions, especially education, encouraging fatalism about the development of human intelligence among individuals and societies. Genes, Brains, and Human Potential goes much further: building on work being done in molecular biology, epigenetics, dynamical systems, evolution theory, and complexity theory, it maps a fresh understanding of intelligence and the development of human potential. Concluding with an upbeat message for human possibilities, this synthesis of diverse perspectives will engender new conversations among students, researchers, and other interested readers.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Relating : it's the cake
• Theater games with engineers
• The heart and head of communication
• The mirror exercise
• Observation games
• Making it clear and vivid
• Reading minds : Helen Riess and Matt Lerner
• Teams
• Total listening starts with where they are
• Listening, from the boardroom to the bedroom
• Training doctors to have more empathy
• My life as a lab rat
• Working alone on building empathy
• Dark empathy
• Reading the mind of the reader
• Teaching and the flame challenge
• Emotion makes it memorable
• Story and the brain
• Commonality
• Jargon and the curse of knowledge
• The improvisation of daily life.

The actor and founder of the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science traces his personal quest to understand how to relate and communicate better, from practicing empathy and using improv games to storytelling and developing better intuitive skills.

• Flies of fancy
• One hundred babies?
• A new position on sex
• Why can't a woman be more like a man?
• Skydiving wallflowers
• The hormonal essence of the T-rex?
• The myth of the Lehman sisters
• Vale rex.

Many people believe that, at its core, biological sex is a fundamental, diverging force in human development. According to this overly familiar story, differences between the sexes are shaped by past evolutionary pressures-women are more cautious and parenting-focused, while men seek status to attract more mates. In each succeeding generation, sex hormones and male and female brains are thought to continue to reinforce these unbreachable distinctions, making for entrenched inequalities in modern society. In Testosterone Rex, psychologist Cordelia Fine wittily explains why past and present sex roles are only serving suggestions for the future, revealing a much more dynamic situation through an entertaining and well-documented exploration of the latest research that draws on evolutionary science, psychology, neuroscience, endocrinology, and philosophy. She uses stories from daily life, scientific research, and common sense to break through the din of cultural assumptions. Testosterone, for instance, is not the potent hormonal essence of masculinity; the presumed, built-in preferences of each sex, from toys to financial risk taking, are turned on their heads. Moving beyond the old "nature versus nurture" debates, Testosterone Rex disproves ingrained myths and calls for a more equal society based on both sexes' full, human potential.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

This book begins with an exploration of the relationship between mind and brain. It then examines various psychoanalytic models of the mind and moves to the task of the analyst to discover the unconscious models that shape his or her patients' picture of him/herself and others.The familiar models are mainly drawn from psychoanalytic practice but are supplemented from myths, religion, and literature. Developments in adjacent scientific fields such as quantum biology and new ideas about evolution are discussed that suggest cellular genetic modification can take place as a consequence of interaction with the outside world. This gives hope perhaps to the idea that not only the mind can learn from experience but also the brain.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• PART ONE - FOUNDATIONS OF EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY
• Chapter 1. The Scientific Movements Leading to Evolutionary Psychology
• Chapter 2. The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology PART TWO - PROBLEMS OF SURVIVAL
• Chapter 3. Combating the Hostile Forces of Nature: Human Survival Problems PART THREE - CHALLENGES OF SEX AND MATING
• Chapter 4. Women's Long-Term Mating Strategies
• Chapter 5. Men's Long-Term Mating Strategies
• Chapter 6. Short-Term Sexual Strategies PART FOUR - CHALLENGES OF PARENTING AND KINSHIP
• Chapter 7. Problems of Parenting
• Chapter 8. Problems of Kinship PART FIVE - PROBLEMS OF GROUP LIVING
• Chapter 9. Cooperative Alliances
• Chapter 10. Aggression and Warfare
• Chapter 11. Conflict between the Sexes
• Chapter 12. Status, Prestige, and Social Dominance PART SIX - AN INTEGRATED PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE
• Chapter 13. Toward a Unified Evolutionary Psychology.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

For courses in Evolutionary Psychology . David Buss, one of the foremost researchers in the field, has thoroughly revised his already successful text with nearly 400 new references to provide an even more comprehensive overview of this dynamic field. Using cutting-edge research and an engaging writing style, the Fourth Edition of Evolutionary Psychology ensures that your students will master the material presented.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)
This book examines human psychology and behavior through the lens of modern evolutionary psychology. Evolutionary Psychology: The Ne w Science of the Mind, 5/e provides students with the conceptual tools of evolutionary psychology, and applies them to empirical research on the human mind. Content topics are logically arrayed, starting with challenges of survival, mating, parenting, and kinship; and then progressing to challenges of group living, including cooperation, aggression, sexual conflict, and status, prestige, and social hierarchies. Students gain a deep understanding of applying evolutionary psychology to their own lives and all the people they interact with.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Part 1: Rethink stress. How to change your mind about stress ; Beyond fight-or-flight ; A meaningful life is a stressful life
• Part 2: Transform stress. What does it mean to be good at stress? ; Engage : how anxiety helps you rise to the challenge ; Connect : how caring creates resilience ; Grow : how adversity makes you stronger ; Final reflections.

"The author of The Willpower Instinct delivers a controversial and groundbreaking new book that overturns long-held beliefs about stress. More than forty-four percent of Americans admit to losing sleep over stress. And while most of us do everything we can to reduce it, Stanford psychologist and bestselling author Kelly McGonigal, Ph. D., delivers a startling message: Stress isn't bad. In The Upside of Stress, McGonigal highlights new research indicating that stress can, in fact, make us stronger, smarter, and happier--if we learn how to embrace it. The Upside of Stress is the first book to bring together cutting-edge discoveries on the correlation between resilience--the human capacity for stress-related growth--and mind-set, the power of beliefs to shape reality. As she did in The Willpower Instinct, McGonigal combines science, stories, and exercises into an engaging and practical book that is both entertaining and life-changing, showing you: how to cultivate a mind-set to embrace stress how stress can provide focus and energy how stress can help people connect and strengthen close relationships why your brain is built to learn from stress, and how to increase its ability to learn from challenging experiences McGonigal's TED talk on the subject has already received more than 7 million views. Her message resonates with people who know they can't eliminate the stress in their lives and want to learn to take advantage of it. The Upside of Stress is not a guide to getting rid of stress, but a guide to getting better at stress, by understanding it, embracing it, and using it"-- Provided by publisher.
"More than forty-four percent of Americans admit to losing sleep over stress. And while most of us do everything we can to reduce it, Stanford psychologist and bestselling author Kelly McGonigal, Ph. D., delivers a startling message: Stress isn't bad. In The Upside of Stress, McGonigal highlights new research indicating that stress can, in fact, make us stronger, smarter, and happier--if we learn how to embrace it"-- Provided by publisher.

• Introduction : battering one another
• The psychology of climate paradox
• "Climate is the new Marx": the many faces of skepticism and denial
• The human animal, as seen by evolutionary psychology
• How climate facts and risks are perceived : cognitive psychology
• What others are saying : social psychology
• The roots of denial : the psychology of identity
• The five psychological barriers to climate action
• From barriers to solutions
• The power of social networks
• Reframing the climate messages
• Make it simple to choose right
• Use the power of stories to re-story climate
• New signals of progress
• The air's way of being
• Stand up for your depression!
• Climate disruption as symptom : what is it trying to tell us?
• Re-imagining climate as the living air
• It's hopeless and I'll give it my all.

Today, about 98 percent of scientists affirm that climate change is human made, and about 2 percent still question it. Despite that overwhelming majority, though, about half the population of rich countries, like ours, choose to believe the 2 percent. And, paradoxically, this large camp of deniers grows even larger as more and more alarming proof of climate change has cropped up over the last decades. This disconnect has both climate scientists and activists scratching their heads, growing anxious, and responding, usually, by repeating more facts to "win" the argument. But, the more climate facts pile up, the greater the resistance to them grows, and the harder it becomes to enact measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prepare communities for the inevitable change ahead. Is humanity up to the task? It is a catch-22 that starts, says psychologist and climate expert Per Espen Stoknes, from an inadequate understanding of the way most humans think, act, and live in the world around them. With dozens of examples, he shows how to retell the story of climate change and apply communication strategies more fit for the task.--Publisher's description.

• Introduction: The Fourth Drive Part One: How Curiosity Works
• 1. Three Journeys
• 2. How Curiosity Begins
• 3. Puzzles and Mysteries Part Two: The Curiosity Drive
• 4. Three Ages of Curiosity
• 5. The Curiosity of Dividend
• 6. The Power of Questions
• 7. The Importance of Knowing Part Three: Staying Curious
• 8. Seven Ways to Stay Curious Afterword: Bjarni.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

"I have no special talents, " said Albert Einstein. "I am only passionately curious." Everyone is born curious. But only some retain the habits of exploring, learning, and discovering as they grow older. Those who do so tend to be smarter, more creative, and more successful. So why are many of us allowing our curiosity to wane? In Curious, Ian Leslie makes a passionate case for the cultivation of our "desire to know." Just when the rewards of curiosity have never been higher, it is misunderstood, undervalued, and increasingly monopolized by a cognitive elite. A "curiosity divide" is opening up. This divide is being exacerbated by the way we use the Internet. Thanks to smartphones and tools such as Google and Wikipedia, we can answer almost any question instantly. But does this easy access to information guarantee the growth of curiosity? No--quite the opposite. Leslie argues that true curiosity the sustained quest for understanding that begets insight and innovation--is in fact at risk in a wired world. Drawing on fascinating research from psychology, economics, education, and business, Curious looks at what feeds curiosity and what starves it, and finds surprising answers. Curiosity isn't, as we're encouraged to think, a gift that keeps on giving. It is a mental muscle that atrophies without regular exercise and a habit that parents, schools, and workplaces need to nurture. Filled with inspiring stories, case studies, and practical advice, Curious will change the way you think about your own mental habits, and those of your family, friends, and colleagues.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)
Today it seems we have the world at our fingertips. Thanks to smartphones and tools such as Google and Wikipedia, we're able feed any aspect of our curiosity instantly. But does this mean we are actually becoming more curious? Absolutely not. In Curious, Ian Leslie argues that true curiosity the sustained quest for understanding that begets insight and innovation is becoming increasingly difficult to harness in our wired world. We confuse ease of access to information with curiosity, and risk losing our ability to ask questions that extend our knowledge gap rather than merely filling it. Worst of all, this decline in curiosity has led to a decline in empathy and our ability to care about those around us.Combining the latest science with an urgent call to cultivate curious minds, Curious draws on psychology, social history, and popular culture to show that being deeply curious is our only hope when it comes to solving current crises as well as an essential part of being human.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Introduction : cleaning out the attic
• The roots of fatherhood : pygmies, finches, and famine
• Conception : the genetic tug-of-war
• Pregnancy : hormones, depression, and the first fight
• Fathers in the lab : of mice and men
• Infants : sculpting fathers' brains
• Children : language, learning, and Batman
• Teenagers : absence, puberty, and faithful voles
• Older fathers : the rewards and risks of waiting
• What fathers do
• Afterword: fathers matter.

In Do Fathers Matter? the award-winning journalist Paul Raeburn collects the latest research to show that fathers have a profound impact on their children's lives - from conception to adulthood. He explains how fathers' roles are distinctly different from those of mothers, as well as how fathers' play helps to prepare children for the outside world. And he reveals how the connection between children and fathers goes both ways: children influence fathers' stress, hormones, and relationships with their partners. Raeburn discards the myths of fatherhood as he searches for what we really know about non-traditional families, new fathers, and fathers of adult children, and introduces us to groundbreaking research that will change the way we think about parenting. Weaving in fascinating findings from genetics, brain research, animal behaviour, and his own experience of parenthood, Raeburn delivers an incredibly rich and eye-opening look at the impact fathers can have on their children.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Broaden the margins
• Basic theory. The story maker : the biology of memory ; The power of forgetting : a new theory of learning
• Retention. Breaking good habits : the effect of context on learning ; Spacing out : the advantage of breaking up study time ; The hidden value of ignorance : the many dimensions of testing
• Problem solving. The upside of distraction : the role of incubation in problem solving ; Quitting before you're ahead : the accumulating gifts of percolation ; Being mixed up : interleaving as an aid to comprehension
• Tapping the subconscious. Learning without thinking : harnessing perceptual discrimination ; You snooze, you win : the consolidating role of sleep
• The foraging brain
• Appendix. Eleven essential questions.

From an early age, we are told that restlessness, distraction, and ignorance are the enemies of success. Learning is all self-discipline, so we must confine ourselves to designated study areas, turn off the music, and maintain a strict ritual. But what if almost everything we were told about learning is wrong? And what if there was a way to achieve more with less effort? Here, award-winning science reporter Benedict Carey sifts through decades of education research to uncover the truth about how our brains absorb and retain information. What he discovers is that, from the moment we are born, we all learn quickly, efficiently, and automatically; but in our zeal to systematize the process we have ignored valuable, naturally enjoyable learning tools like forgetting, sleeping, and daydreaming. Is a dedicated desk in a quiet room really the best way to study? Can altering your routine improve your recall? Are there times when distraction is good? Is repetition necessary? Carey's search for answers to these questions yields a wealth of strategies that make learning more a part of our everyday lives--and less of a chore.--From publisher description.

"A fascinating survey of the forces that shape who we are and how we act-from the author of The Calculus Diaries Following her previous tours through the worlds of physics (Black Bodies and Quantum Cats) and calculus (The Calculus Diaries), acclaimed science writer Jennifer Ouellette now turns her attention to the mysteries of human identity and behavior with Me, Myself, and Why. She draws on genetics, neuroscience, and psychology-enlivened as always with her signature sense of humor and pop-culture references-to explore how we become who we are. Ouellette lets readers in on her own surprising journey of self-discover, as she has her genome sequenced, her brain mapped, her personality typed, and even samples a popular hallucinogen. Bringing together everything from Mendel's famous pea plant experiments and mutations in The X-Men to our taste in food and our relationship with avatars and our online selves, Ouellette delivers another fun and enlightening work of popular science that's sure to be enjoyed by her many fans"--Provided by publisher.