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Brain Bytes: Quick Answers to Quirky Questions About the Brain
Neuroscience in small bits for the brain-curious. From magazine covers to Hollywood blockbusters, neuroscience is front and center. This popular interest has inspired many questions from people who wonder just what is going on in the three pounds of tissue between their ears. In Brain Bytes , neuroscience educators Eric Chudler and Lise Johnson get right to it, asking and answering more than one hundred questions about the brain. Questions include: Does size matter (do humans have the largest brains)? Can foods make people smarter? Does surfing online kill brain cells? Why do we dream? Why can’t I tickle myself? Why do cats like catnip? Why do we yawn and why are yawns contagious? What can I do to keep my brain healthy? Whether you are interested in serious topics like the history of neuroscience or practical topics like brain health or fun topics like popular culture, this book is sure to provide your brain with some piece of information it didn’t have before.
256 pages, Hardcover
Published March 14, 2017
9 people are currently reading
87 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 7, 2025
Super interesting book, easy and to the point with each question
August 27, 2023
Fun to read a chapter everyday
August 31, 2017
*Feeling bad is nature's way of telling you that whatever you just did was the wrong thing to do.*
November 7, 2022
Love it
July 18, 2022
2/5 stars
After almost one year reading this book, i've finished it!!!
It's actually not a large book, but the content it's so dense I needed my time to read it. Again and again, I would say these are quick (sooo quick) answers to very interesting questions (at least some of them). As I said on my updates, I already knew the answer to most of them, because I've learned them at school, high school, university or just because I was curious about them and I searched them at some point in my life. So it felt boring. I almost DNF it a bunch of times because of that.
What frustated me the most was that after reading two pages of information (literally one or two pages per question), I got an non-conclusive answer "we, scientists, are still working on it".
I understand that It's tricky to write about science and trying to give a definitive answer to some of these questions, every day we get more (and new) information we didn't know before. So I get it. But still the answers had no depth.
And don't get me started with the vocabulary, this book needs illustrations, pleeeeaaaseee
After almost one year reading this book, i've finished it!!!
It's actually not a large book, but the content it's so dense I needed my time to read it. Again and again, I would say these are quick (sooo quick) answers to very interesting questions (at least some of them). As I said on my updates, I already knew the answer to most of them, because I've learned them at school, high school, university or just because I was curious about them and I searched them at some point in my life. So it felt boring. I almost DNF it a bunch of times because of that.
What frustated me the most was that after reading two pages of information (literally one or two pages per question), I got an non-conclusive answer "we, scientists, are still working on it".
I understand that It's tricky to write about science and trying to give a definitive answer to some of these questions, every day we get more (and new) information we didn't know before. So I get it. But still the answers had no depth.
And don't get me started with the vocabulary, this book needs illustrations, pleeeeaaaseee
November 17, 2017
2.5 stars
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews