Editor's Summary
25 October 2007
Taking notes
Music, what's the point? Steven Pinker has called it useless, with no adaptive value. Oliver Sacks and Daniel Levitin beg to differ. In their respective books Musicophilia and This is Your Brain on Music, they cite courtship and cognitive development among its purposes. Laura Garwin, once Nature's North American editor but now to be found in the concert hall, reviews both books. And with Laura's roots in the physical sciences, it is Galileo's way with a tune that seems to impress most. Other topics covered in the Autumn Books package include the nature of the scientific process, how mathematicians think, toxicity, and lab-lit.
Autumn Books: Harmony of the hemispheres
Our brains seem to be finely tuned to music, but of what use are our musical powers and passions?
doi:10.1038/449977a
Autumn Books: New in Paperback
doi:10.1038/449977b
Autumn Books: Using maths to tackle cancer
doi:10.1038/449978a
Autumn Books: One-man canary
doi:10.1038/449981a
Autumn Books: Botanists' blues
doi:10.1038/449982a
Autumn Books: What do mathematicians do?
doi:10.1038/449982b
Autumn Books: Physical interactions
doi:10.1038/449983a
Autumn Books: Eras of judgement
doi:10.1038/449985a
Autumn Books: The power of the mind
doi:10.1038/449988a