The human brain - Susan Greenfield

A guided tour of the final frontier in human understanding: the brain

Locked away remote from the rest of the body in its own custom-built casing of skull bone, with no intrinsic moving parts, the human brain remains a tantalising mystery. But now, more than ever before, we have the expertise to tackle this mystery - the last 20 years have seen astounding progress in brain research.

Susan Greenfield begins by exploring the roles of different regions of the brain. She then switches to the opposite direction and examines how certain functions, such as movement and vision, are accommodated in the brain. She describes how a brain is made from a single fertilized egg; the fate of the brain is traced through life as we see how it constantly changes as a result of experience to provide the essence of a unique individual.

Susan Greenfield has held fellowships in the Department of Physiology, Oxford; the College de France, Paris and NYU Medical Center, New York. The title of Professor of Pharmacology was conferred in 1996. She became Director of The Royal Institution of Great Britain in 1998. She heads a group of 18 scientists studying Parkinson's and Alzheimer's Disease, and developed an interest in the physical basis of the mind. She published her own theory of consciousness Journey to the Centres of the Mind and Ego: The Neuroscience of the Self. In 1994 she was the first woman to give the Royal Institution Christmas lectures. She recently authored The Human Brain: A Guided Tour which was published as paperback in 1998. She was included as one of the 50 most powerful women in Britain by the Guardian and ranked number 14 in the "50 Most Inspirational Women in the World" by Harpers and Queen. She has recently received the Michael Faraday medal from the Royal Society for making the most significant contribution in 1998 to the public understanding of science, as well as receiving the "Woman of Distinction" 1998 award from Jewish Care. In January 2000 she was awarded the CBE for her services to the public understanding of science.