Elsevier's Encyclopedia of Neuroscience, 2nd edition
Elsevier Science, New York, 1999. $385 hardcover, pp 2213 ISBN 0-444-81612-7 | ISBN: 0-444-81612-7
The neurosciences are vast. With the endless proliferation of new journals, it is nearly impossible to keep up with the latest findings in our own specializations, let alone in the field as a whole. Some journals provide overviews of the latest breakthroughs in their news and comments sections. However, these tidbits tend to be narrow in scope, helping only to sort out the details of insights that are contained in the scientific reports. Our desks are cluttered with piles of unread journals, articles, reviews and preprints that promise to educate us on topics that are peripheral to the focus of our research programs, but we perpetually postpone our reading of this literature. Those who are pack rats eventually consign unread material to the dark recesses of our filing cabinets; the realists fill up a recycling bin or two on a periodic basis. We resort to a hodgepodge of methods to bolster our general knowledge, making do with the weekly colloquia, the expertise of our colleagues, and the occasional reading of Current Opinion volumes or Scientific American pieces. Hardly a systematic approach for the establishment and maintenance of expertise.
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