1
So, maybe this is not the book to buy if you want to be surprised with new facts, but it does provide some fascinating insights into how faces have developed over the years, and whether one can judge a person by their appearance alone. Although rather serious in places, the book is packed with eye-catching photos, making it an ideal birthday present even for the most reluctant student of science.
2
Where does our feeling for language come from? How do we learn to speak it so effortlessly? Why is it so hard for adults to learn a foreign language? Cleverly structured, with many amusing anecdotes, linguist Steven linker's book examines why we use language and where this ability comes from. His personal belief is that language is as instinctive to us as flying is to geese, and that we use it to great effect in order to communicate. He illustrates his theory with examples of language taken from various sources, including children's conversations, pop culture and politicians' speeches. A clever user of language himself. Pinker has packed his book full of original thoughts. Because of this, it does not make for light reading, but it will
3
She agrees with those who insist that the brain, which is capable of amazing things, is constantly developing, and gets better and better with age providing you look after it. Although this book develops the ideas introduced in her previous one, The Private life of the Brain, it clearly has television audiences in mind (a tie-in series has just begun on BBC1) and as a consequence it is rather shorter on detail, focusing instead on one or two interesting examples.
4
New and surprising discoveries appear almost every week. This is why genetics is now popular in the 21st Century science. Before, people heard about genes and they believed that family traits were carried in the blood. Today, we know that this is incorrect. Issues like these are object of discussion in this thrilling new book by Professor Jones. Just like his other books, you will find it hard to criticize, even if you don’t have a scientific background.
