The Brain: Everything You Need To Know

by New Scientist

Join New Scientist on a mind-expanding rollercoaster ride through intelligence, creativity, your unconscious and beyond.

Congratulations! You're the proud owner of the most complex information processing device in the known universe. The human brain comes equipped with all sorts of useful design features, but also many bugs and weaknesses. Problem is you don't get an owner's manual. You have to just plug and play.

As a result, most of us never properly understand how our brains work and what they're truly capable of. We fail to get the best out of them, ignore some of their most useful features and struggle to overcome their design faults.

Until now, that is.

Featuring witty essays and fascinating "try this at home" experiments, New Scientist take you on a journey through intelligence, memory, creativity, the unconscious and beyond. From the strange ways to distort what we think of as "reality" to the brain hacks that can improve memory, The A User's Guide will help you understand your brain and show you how to use it to its full potential.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Psychology, Neuroscience, Brain, Unfinished

448 pages, Hardcover

Published October 6, 2020

Reviews

[Jonathan Mitchell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bought for £3 from the Works. Mostly read this on the train going to work and it was ideal for the purpose.

Chapters are divided into small chunks and bitesize articles that are easy to digest as well as interesting, if not quite fascinating.

A lot of what I read here reaffirmed things I'd read elsewhere or that are sort of common sense theories, but it had the authority of coming from the NewScientist, lending the analysis and conclusions credibility.

[Sar Flo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book showed me the importance of self- love and caring not only for our brain but also for our body. I recommend to read this book as many times as you can to realise the importance of knowing your brain and the hacks and tips to boost your memory ❤️

[Daniel Byrd · Rating 1 out of 5]

1/5

I found very little to like about this book. To start with, the organization is terrible. I understand this is published by a magazine company that typically does articles; however, if you are going to publish a book, then at least try to have some semblance of organization. Secondly, it is pure materialistic, atheistic propaganda that speaks in arrogant conclusions that scoffs at any reader who may disagree with that worldview. Lastly, there are precisely zero sources cited throughout the text. The methodology seems no more credible than a random podcaster who has only done their research through cursory searches on Wikipedia. I would not recommend this book.

[Aimee King · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting topics but a bit repetitive at times. Enjoyed the odd quiz questions too. Good to know I score low on the psychopath scale 😂

[William Moorby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not what I was expecting.
Chapters are 3-10 pages long and are just kind of random bits of info and history about a discovery, not that interesting.

[Paul Ransom · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best thing about this book may also be its core problem; namely, that it skims. However, despite wanting more detail on numerous occasions, this breezy New Scientist publication is super approachable and entertaining, not to mention informative. There are few phenomena more intriguing than the human brain, so the content herein is always fascinating and revealing. Also worth noting, it is divided into bite size chapters, thus making it simple to dip in and extract the gems you want. For all its often limiting brevity, it's a good book to have handy. Nice work, NS (and Alison George especially).

[Dean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting, nothing mind blowing though.

[Candice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of it was interesting and new to me. Some of it, I already knew. It was easy to read but at times, it came across a bit arrogant. Don’t get me wrong; I’m interested in what we find out about the world through the works of science, however, at times throughout this book, there were parts where it came across as being a bit condescending and dismissive of other views. Let’s be honest; science doesn’t know all there is to know and throughout history, scientists have been proven wrong with some views. So for someone who is open minded and curious, the arrogant approach at times comes across as a bit of a disappointment.

Still, it’s an interesting, starting-point for when it comes to learning about the brain. For me though, I’ve been interested in the workings of the brain since being diagnosed with PTSD, and have read a lot about the brain, so while interesting, I did find it to be a bit basic. But that’s just me. Still worth reading though.

[Ahmed Abdulkarim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gave me a lot of awareness about how the brain works, and awareness is key to improvement. One of the things that shocked me the most is how our subconscious mind decides before we consciously make a choice. You will learn that the brain is a prediction machine that is influenced by language, habits, drugs, and the environment. There are plenty of fun exercises/quizzes that make it more interesting than just a read (though i actually doubt they actually test your mental power). The more you read about the brain the more you realize that it is a magical creation by god, and it makes it even more mysterious that we only know a tip of the iceberg on how it actually works. I recommend it!

[Aisha Dadlani · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting to see how much i’ve picked up in 3 years of psych when little bits all jumbled together. interesting to see someone put together all the things you should know about the brain... don’t think i could put it together in a book and unsure i would have chosen the points the author did. interesting all the same.

[Mr Russell Watkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who is fascinated by how the brain works, I read this and found it very enlightening. The things the brain does, and how we cope with so many different things at the same time, and how the brain copes with so much information.

[Jake Jake · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought expecting brain related topics discussed in depth. Instead it's an aggregation of multiple articles, interesting ones, but very shallow. For someone who is interested in brain related topics, simple neuroscience and psychology these articles won't add much value.

[Liam Gilbey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was not what I was expecting. It was a collection of short 3 page chapters that read more like article snippets than a cohesive book.
Some of the facts were interesting, but a lot of this is not ground breaking information.

[Teresa Wallenberger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very short chapters that touch upon all different kinds and aspects of neurobiology. Interesting reads, of course only scratching the surface and providing broad summaries of each topic - think wide, not deep. Still a worthwhile read with the one or other interesting insight and learning.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating, especially for wannabe psychologists

[summer! · Rating 4 out of 5]

proper interesting icl, so many psychologists i feel knowledgeable

[Indah Threez Lestari · Rating 4 out of 5]

69 - 2023

[Hazel · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️

A little repetitive, but reallyy interesting

[Grenolz · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5⭐

[Maya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really interesting if you're into learning about this kind of thing! It got a little bit boring towards the end..

[Robert Frederick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad read, can get dogged at certain points but all interesting things to be shown.

[Ellie Hurt · Rating 5 out of 5]

very interesting

[Keerthana J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun

[Sokobedy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can never help but give books in which I learnt a lot 5 stars, even if they were far from being perfect

[Maya Hamid · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a good reading to know our brain more from different perspectives.

[İbrahim Cem Şahinkaya · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick overview of popular subjects relating to intellect. Not technical. Inspiring though.