A few good books. Help a poor PhD student supplement his grant. ;-)
In alphabetical order by first author’s surname...
Per Bak
How Nature Works- amazon.com amazon.co.uk amazon.de
- With its modest title, this is Per’s book on self-organized criticality (SOC), the idea of which he was a founder. I’m biased, of course, but I found it an immensely fun and colourful read with a lot of great information — a fascinating trip through the physics of complex systems, from one of the pioneers in that field. I think it is valuable not just as an excellent introduction to a lot of marvellous science, but also as a very evocative picture of how science is actually done. Highly recommended.
Jean-Pierre Changeux
Neuronal Man: The Biology of Mind- amazon.com amazon.co.uk amazon.de
- This fabulous book contains a great deal of fascinating material on the history of thought about the nervous system, from the ancient Greeks all the way through Golgi, Ramón y Cajal and Hebb to the present day, and in the light of this material paints a stimulating picture of how basic neural interactions add up into a complete human being.
Joanna MacGregor
Neural Circuits- amazon.co.uk amazon.de
- OK, I admit it, this has nothing to do with the study of neural systems other than the title. But this CD contains some fun tunes so I’m including it here anyway. >;}~
Rolf Pfeifer & Christian Scheier
Understanding Intelligence- amazon.com amazon.co.uk amazon.de
- An excellent text on embodied cognitive science. I don’t really agree with the robot-building approach — the robots used usually seem too arbitrary — but this work contains a wealth of useful material and references.
Dennis Potter
Karaoke/Cold Lazarus- amazon.com amazon.co.uk amazon.de
- Cold Lazarus, the second of these two screenplays, is the disturbing tale of a writer’s cryogenically frozen head brought back to life in a future where corporations rule the world. The last dramatic works of a remarkable writer.