Synopses & Reviews
Can bacteria be as smart as we are? Can ants think? And fish? Yes, says Frank Vertosick, a neurosurgeon who combats our elitism about intelligence in this brilliant book.
A gifted writer and author of the widely praised Why We Hurt, Vertosick shows us that intelligence--the ability to react to the outside world, to change behavior, and survive-can be found wherever life exists. He demonstrates the keen intelligence of our immune system, how lowly bacteria mutate and outwit antibiotics, and how canny cancer cells elude our natural defenses.
A fascinating journey through worlds of unknown science and an unsettling argument against our valuing of brain intelligence above all else, The Genius Within tells a fascinating scientific story, one that could shake our ethical foundation to its core.
Review
PRAISE FOR
WHY WE HURT"Writing with eloquence, clarity and wit, Dr. Vertosick has given us a masterful book on a subject of concern to us all."--Rabbi Harold Kushner, author of When Bad Things Happen To Good People
"To my surprise and delight, Dr. Frank T. Vertosick, Jr., a practicing
neurosurgeon, performs a feat of literary alchemy."--Dr. Jerome Groopman, The New York Times Book Review
"Fascinating . . . Falls squarely in the territory of Oliver Sacks."--Newsday
About the Author
Frank T. Vertosick, Jr., M.D., is a neurosurgeon and author of When the Air Hits Your Brain, a highly acclaimed memoir of his surgical training. A former president of the Pennsylvania Neurosurgical Society and a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, he lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Table of Contents
CONTENTS
To the Reader xi
Introduction 3
part i the small
1 The Microbial Mind 21
2 The Immune Intellect 56
3 The Enzyme Computer 87
part ii the abstract
4 The Yang and the Um 135
5 Networks 177
6 The Selfish Neuron 205
part iii the large
7 Wider than the Sky 231
8 Superorganisms 270
9 Magister Ludi 292
Addenda 324
Bibliography 334
Index 342