Capsule Reviews

Me, Myself, and Why, RedDevil 4, Neanderthal Man, and Science from Sight to Insight

Written byBob Grant

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By Jennifer Ouellette
Penguin, January 2014

Science writer Jennifer Ouellette has carved herself a nice niche by penning books that probe the intricacies of physics and the functioning of the cosmos. Her latest offering, Me, Myself, and Why, turns inward and shifts focus to the science of personality and identity—with special attention paid to her own.

What sets Ouellette’s book apart from the tsunami of other pop psychology books out there is the extent to which she gives herself over to exploring her subject. In her most intensely personal work to date, the author invites readers into an MRI scanner as it images her brain, into her hard drive as she creates her own avatar in the online virtual world Second Life, and into her ...

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Meet the Author

Bob Grant
From 2017 to 2022, Bob Grant was Editor in Chief of The Scientist, where he started in 2007 as a Staff Writer. Before joining the team, he worked as a reporter at Audubon and earned a master’s degree in science journalism from New York University. In his previous life, he pursued a career in science, getting a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology from Montana State University and a master’s degree in marine biology from the College of Charleston in South Carolina. Bob edited Reading Frames and other sections of the magazine.
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