The Making of Memory

by Steven Rose

The human brain weighs, on average, just over two pounds, is wrinkled like a walnut and has the colour and something of the consistency of porridge. Yet somehow the interactions of the ten billion cells that comprise it produce our capacity to think, hope, believe, imagine, and also to remember - to learn and recall, perhaps years later, a face, a tune, a poem or a telephone number. Are there molecules of memory? Can we understand the brain best as a computer? What light do diseases of memory shed on its mechanism? What is it, locked into the interactions of the brain cells and the molecules composing them, that carries the memories which make each person unique? Deciphering this, Steven Rose argues, is the key to interpreting the links between brain and mind. In this book he traces the road to a new understanding of memory that he and other researchers have followed, with all its false turnings and misleading signposts. One of the aims of the book is to explore, through a description of the laboratory life of memory researchers, how scientists, in a world not free from political rivalry, ideology and self-deception, nevertheless strive to answer an important and fascinating question.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Psychology, Neuroscience, Popular Science, Biology, Research

368 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Steven Peter Russell Rose was an English neuroscientist, author and social commentator. He was an emeritus professor of biology and neurobiology at the Open University and Gresham College, London.

Reviews

[Erik Graff · Rating 5 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed this book as it not only covers the state of neurology up until the time of its publication in 1992, but also gives a sociologically astute description of the actual processes of modern scientific research with considerable attention to the author's own work. The focus, however, is on memory and on the theories about its relation to the brain. Rose himself subscribes to a redundancy model, for what that's worth.

Throughout, Rose clearly presents himself and his democratic socialist values. This is interested science and he is at some pains to show how all science reflects the value-assumptions of practioners. Rose is, of course, known as a vocal anti-reductionist and as a proponent of human freedom.

I read this book at the old Panini, Panini Cafe on Sheridan and Pratt in East Rogers Park, Chicago. It went much more quickly and enjoyably than I had expected.

[Friedrich Mencken · Rating 1 out of 5]

Rose couldn't resists the temptation to make this about himself instead of the subject matter. So, if you want to know what Steven Rose thinks about stuff, this book is for YOU!

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Readability 5. Rating 5. This book is an attempt by Rose, a neurochemist, to give a glimpse of what scientists do on a day-to-day basis, from designing and executing experiments to publishing to raising money to traveling to conferences. He also shares his part of the scientific pursuit, the defining and understanding of memory. He covers the history, some major developments in other disciplines (and the use of other animal subjects in the pursuit), and then his own work in tracking the effects on the brains of chicks after they peck a bead that has an unpleasant substance on it. Rose is thoughtful, and much of what he covers is interesting. The problem is that he is a poor writer - something he seems to recognize to a degree - and much of what he writes is lifeless (no pun intended), badly organized, or excessively complicated. A worthwhile effort, but only barely so.

[Kelly]

Lent to ACP

[Kayson Fakhar · Rating 4 out of 5]

even memories are matters and patterns.

[R Bharathi · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book needed conscious effort to read, but worth every minute spent.