What I've been reading

Soul Made Flesh: The Discovery of the Brain--and How it Changed the World by Carl Zimmer is a must read for anyone interested in neuroscience. In some of the recent interviews, I have heard Nassim Taleb mention that he has been reading about the history of medicine, now I understand why he is hooked to it.

The book chronicles the life and works of world's first neuroscientist, Thomas Willis. Thomas Willis story doesn't start until the middle of the book and before that mostly is about English history. Yes, it feels like Zimmer is straying away from the central theme of the book but only way to explain the history neuroscience is to narrate at-least some historical facts which directly influenced science during that period. So if you are used to regular neuroscience books, then this one will come as a pleasant surprise or a boring history book. The books takes us away from the sleek fMRI, brain scans et al to grotesque scenes butchering animals to understand workings of the brain and those were the days when significance of the brain was grossly underestimated. Thomas Willis happens to be the person who changed that perspective and gave brain the right place it deserved. Its ironic it was the philosophers (like Aristotle) who put the heart at the center of the soul, instead of the brain and it was again philosophers (like John Locke) who finally vindicated the brain. In my view, the most important revelation from this book, is how the worlds first neuroscientist was one of the catalyst responsible for the "Idea of USA". John Locke was a student of Thomas Willis and was greatly influenced by Willis theories of Brain. In turn, John Locke influenced the founding fathers of this country.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

It's safe to infer that the above words from the declaration of independence was one of the many ideas, resulted directly from understanding the importance of the brain, pioneered by Thomas Willis. The word self-evident sounds so simple today but self-evident wasn't an easy thing to "process" those days leave alone expressing self-evidence . (It's another matter that lot of things which are not self-evident to the current generation which will be self-evident for future generations)
Thomas Willis took a stance against Descartes theory of morality and soul being ("supposedly") uniquely human traist:

"who endeavoring as much as they could to discriminate the soul of beasts from the humane, affirmed them to be not only corporeal and divisible, but merely passive."

That was in 1600's, about 340 years ago but why even in the year 2009 lot of us think animals have no morality? One of the many obvious answers is its very convenient to look down on animals which makes the process of consoling the conscious pretty mundane task.

My interest in neuroscience felt nauseating after reading about the butchering of dogs and other animals to understand the anatomy of the brain. Worse, they even cut open dogs, keeping them live, to get a "live" view of the blood flow et al. In retrospect it seems like a necessary evil but these days hardly anyone (expect few) recognize the sacrifice made by millions of animals to make human lives better. Of all things in my life, the most important thing was always giving Max the best life possible and now I feel, whatever I do is not enough since one life time is not enough to pay gratitude to the slaughtered souls. But the worst thing to do is get angry about this lackadaisical attitude of the people and not getting angry is the hardest thing to do. The contagious forgiving nature of Max comes to my rescue and I am learning.

As a pay back, someday neuroscience might enlighten the people to change their perspective of animals. After all it was neuroscience which made our fore fathers realize the self-evident fact that "we are all born equal" and its time our generation enlarges that circle to include all living beings.