I just discovered Robert Sapolsky, a professor of Biology and Neuroscience at Stanford who has worked with and observed the same group of baboons for decades. His writings on the behavior-biology connection are well-documented and his lectures on YouTube are brilliant. He is a masterful speaker - dynamic, learned, and accessible.
After watching a 60-minute introductory lecture to the Human Behavioral Biology course he teaches at Stanford, I read a NY Times Opinion piece he wrote, entitled, "This is Your Brain on Metaphors," illustrating the identical biological response of the brain/body to literal and metaphorical situations. This work has been documented previously, of course, but Sapolsky has a very creative way of getting the point across. His work on the stress response in primates (including humans) is lauded.
My Plan B for the next eight weeks, in lieu of the A&P class I which has already filled, is to watch all 24 lectures on YouTube of Sapolsky's class and to read his book, "Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers." The link for the lectures begins with Lecture #1 at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNnIGh9g6fA&feature=relmfu
Sapolsky's list of writings are vast. His published books (via Wikipedia) are:
- Stress, the Aging Brain, and the Mechanisms of Neuron Death (MIT Press, 1992) ISBN 0-262-19320-5
- Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers (1994, Holt/Owl 3rd Rep. Ed. 2004) ISBN 0-8050-7369-8
- The Trouble with Testosterone: And Other Essays on the Biology of the Human Predicament (Scribner, 1997) ISBN 0-684-83891-5
- Junk Food Monkeys (Headline Book Publishing, 1997) ISBN 978-0747276760
- A Primate's Memoir (Touchstone Books, 2002) ISBN 0-7432-0247-3
- Monkeyluv : And Other Essays on Our Lives as Animals (Scribner, 2005) ISBN 0-7432-6015-5
For his course in human biology, Sapolsky uses his own book, "Zebras," and highly recommends James Gleick's book, "Chaos: Making of a New Science."
Can't wait to learn!
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