27 May 2014

Science writer Sam Kean on neuroscience's greatest mysteries

From Nine To Noon, 10:06 am on 27 May 2014

Science writer Sam Kean has researched, for his latest book, the wild and mysterious cases of severe and bizarre brain injuries that made up the foundations of modern neuroscience. In The Tale of the Duelling Neurosurgeons, he travels through time with stories of neurological curiosities: phantom limbs, Siamese twin brains, viruses that eat patients' memories, blind people who see through their tongues, and more. Sam Kean lives in Washington and writes for Science. In 2009 he was a runner-up for the National Association of Science Writers' Evert Clark/Seth Payne Award for best science writer under the age of thirty. His first book, The Disappearing Spoon, was a New York Times bestseller and was shortlisted for the Royal Society's Winton Prize for science writing, and he has also written the book The Violinist's Thumb.