Hannah Critchlow

There are those that believe that star signs determine our fate, that very moment that you were born your destiny was set by the heavenly bodies. Others think that we are completely free to determine and set our path in the world. It looks like both of these are wrong, as according to the science free will doesn’t exist.

Our neuroscience probes deeper into our grey matter, it is revealing the processes that we use to make our decisions, how we form the reality that we see around us and just how much effect that the subconscious mind has over our day to day life. The DNA that we have inherited from our parents plays a key role too, certain character traits, such as phobias, addiction and depression are hardwired into us before we emerge from the womb. The unconscious mind has all sorts of tricks up its sleeve. Certain processes become automatic after a while, it plays as much of a part in selecting our partner as much as visual cues and personality do.

Critchlow has lots of example of human behaviour and why some things are easy for us to keep doing and why other changes need much more effort to have an effect. She has some good ideas in here and I thought that it was written well, but it didn’t quite have that extra something that would lift it to great. 2.5 stars… (meer)

The question: What is Consciousness is such a difficult one to answer. We know that we are conscious, but are other animals conscious too? What about plants, or forests and other ecosystems? But the more you think about it opens up wider questions, can we absorb the consciousness of other people? Can machines gain consciousness too?

In this short book, Hannah Critchlow sets about answering some of these questions and summing up some of the latest thoughts on how our brains work but perceiving and responding to the world around us.

I love the format of these little expert guides. It harks back to the books I used to read as a child and remember fondly. These have a difference though, they are concise books with detailed information written by experts and are a brief introduction to some complex science. Great little books for the budding scientist and those that want to read up on an unknown subject.… (meer)