The Epigenetics Revolution and The Astonishing Hypothesis; The Scientific Search for the Soul

The Epigenetics Revolution:
How Modern Biology is Rewriting Our Understanding of Genetics, Disease, and Inheritance -by Nessa Carey
 Accurate title. Pushing hard on my comprehension of molecular biology and genetics, but I think I'm getting the essence of what she is saying. Genes that express proteins are just the beginning of understanding what happens to our bodies in development and later life. Explosion of data and knowledge in this area. The complexity of the processes described in detail here make it hard to believe that anyone ever grows up without major defects. Nature has evolved some really clever ways to balance conflicting biochemical requirements and repair damage that occurs.Lots of jargon, but worth effort to grasp the ideas.

Also taking a top level look at the great Francis Crick's last book;
The Astonishing Hypothesis; The Scientific Search for the Soul.
 The hypothesis is that "You" ... are in fact no more than  the behavior of of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules. Published in 1994, much progress in consciousness analysis, cognitive psychology and the brain sciences has been made since then , but his level headed, low hype approach to what was known at the time is the mark of a great scientist. Enjoying his clear writing and approach to interpreting research results. Also still a good primer about the brain and neurons. He does NOT make the claim that he has proved the hypothesis.
 "The Mind is What the Brain Does" ???

AMAZON links to reviews and samples;

http://www.amazon.com/Epigenetics-Revolution-Rewriting-Understanding-Inheritance/dp/0231161166/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1364224839&sr=1-1&keywords=nessa+carey+-+the+epigenetics+revolution

http://www.amazon.com/Astonishing-Hypothesis-Scientific-Search-Soul/dp/0684801582/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1364224897&sr=1-3&keywords=Crick+francis

"The Stuff of Thought".

Have finished "The Stuff of Thought" by Pinker. First half was very detailed linguistics, and not for everyone, including me. However, I am glad I pushed through it, because it made the arguments and conclusions of the last half understandable and believable.

The last chapter is a wonderful summary of his understanding of  "The Stuff of Thought" , that is hard to resist. Hope that it can be read as an excerpt on AMAZON website.
Some excerpts;

Language offers the clearest window on how we can transcend our cognitive and emotional limitations.

The first way out is conceptual metaphor. Humans take their concepts of space, time, causality and substance, etch away the leaden physical contents they were designed for. and apply the residual framework to airier subject matter.
...
The second way out is the combinatorial power of language....(which)allows us to entertain an explosion of ideas even though we are equipped with with a finite inventory of concepts and relations.

He goes on to say bad ideas also come from this process but we also have methods to winnow them out.

His suggestion for the goal of education struck me as illuminating;

The goal of education (in a scientifically literate democracy) is to make up for the shortcomings in our instinctive ways of thinking about the physical and social world. And education is likely to succeed not by trying to implant abstract statements in empty minds, but by taking the mental models that are our standard equipment, applying them to new subjects in selective analogies, and assembling them into new and more sophisticated combinations. 


Pinker's  "How the Mind Works" and "The Blank Slate" were also very thought provoking.

I would love to attend a series of discussions/seminars on Pinker's books. I may start a book club.