Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science is a 1979 book by astrophysicist Carl Sagan. Its chapters were originally articles published between 1974 and 1979 in various magazines, including Atlantic Monthly, New Republic, Physics Today, Playboy and Scientific American. In the introduction, Sagan writes:
The title essay is named in honor of the French physician, anatomist and anthropologist, Paul Broca (1824 – 1880). He is best known for...
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Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science is a 1979 book by astrophysicist Carl Sagan. Its chapters were originally articles published between 1974 and 1979 in various magazines, including Atlantic Monthly, New Republic, Physics Today, Playboy and Scientific American. In the introduction, Sagan writes:
The title essay is named in honor of the French physician, anatomist and anthropologist, Paul Broca (1824 – 1880). He is best known for his discovery that different functions are assigned to different parts of the brain. He believed that by studying the brains of cadavers and correlating the known experiences of the former owner of the organs, human behavior could eventually be discovered and understood. To that end, he saved hundreds of human brains in jars of formalin; among the collection is his own neural organ. When Sagan finds it in a museum, he poses questions that challenge some core ideas of human existence such as "How much of that man known as Paul Broca can still...
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