A couple of posts ago, I showed you a picture of one of my notebooks with some scribbles about the idea for a blog.
I also found some notes on my early ideas for ‘The First Brain’:
Credit: Baldscientist
Those of you bored enough to read my posts (yes, I am in **that** mood today). Surely noticed a common phrase: ‘neuronal worm’.
There is a story behind why I like that phrase.
My master’s thesis and my first few scientific papers were based on a rather famous protein, the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor. As the name implies, this is the molecular target of nicotine, the most addictive drug, period. Not surprisingly, the study of this receptor has contributed to the understanding of not only the effects of nicotine, but a multitude of other compounds as well. Most of what we know about ion channels, the proteins responsible for phenomena from movement to cognition has in one way or another based on what we know about the nicotinic receptor.
Understandably, I have a soft spot for this protein and I have talked a little bit about them here and here.
I also have great admiration for one of the scientists that has contributed the most to the understanding of this protein, Prof Jean-Pierre Changeux of the Pasteur institute in. Paris, France. He has authored some 600 (!) research papers and a few books. Some of them technical, some of them intended to be read by the general public.
One of them, although certainly not for beginners but neither too technical is ‘Neuronal Man: The Biology of Mind‘.
If you recall that I work on the neurobiology and pharmacology of a certain type of worms… Well, there you go.
Neuronal Worm
I really liked the title, in the nerdish way that only a true enthusiast can display (full disclosure: nerd and proud). However, a person way smarter than I’ll ever be (book- and -street smart both) suggested the eventual title of my book. And thank God for that! ‘Neuronal Man’ is a good title to attract the attention of the general public.’Neuronal Worm’… Not so much.
That being said, I still think that it would be a great title for a technical review paper or a specialized blogpost, so I may still use it someday…
(;-D)
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TFB is available as an ebook (Kindle, Nook, as well as in iTunes). The hardcover is available at Amazon and at the Oxford University Press’ website. There’s even a 20% discount code from OUP.
This is a popular science book, which I hope to be enjoyed by laypeople and biologists alike.
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