The Kingdom of Infinite Space: A Fantastical Journey Around Your Head

New
Paperback
2009
$19.51

From the act of blushing and the amount of manganese in our tears (tears of pain contain more than tears of distress) to the curiousness of a kiss, The Kingdom of Infinite Space explores the astonishing range of activities that go on inside our heads, most of which are entirely beyond our control. After escorting his readers on a fantastic voyage through every chamber of the head and brain, Raymond Tallis demonstrates that not only does consciousness not reside between our ears, but that our heads are infinitely cleverer than we are.

Synopsis

From the act of blushing and the amount of manganese in our tears (tears of pain contain more than tears of distress) to the curiousness of a kiss, The Kingdom of Infinite Space explores the astonishing range of activities that go on inside our heads, most of which are entirely beyond our control. After escorting his readers on a fantastic voyage through every chamber of the head and brain, Raymond Tallis demonstrates that not only does consciousness not reside between our ears, but that our heads are infinitely cleverer than we are.

$19.51

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 352
Edition: Main - Print on Demand
Publisher: Atlantic Books
Published: 01 Jan 2009
ISBN 10: 1843546701
ISBN 13: 9781843546702
Book Overview: 'The Kingdom of Infinite Space gets the reader to think afresh about everyday experiences such as staring in the mirror, vision, breathing, speaking, hearing, face recognition, laughter, tickling, yawning, sweating, eating, spitting, smoking, vomiting, ageing, sex and death. The pages burst with an entertaining mixture of intriguing facts and thought-provoking observations.' New Scientist

Media Reviews

Fascinating... A wonderful treasury of stupefying facts, a sort of 'Ripley's Believe It Or Not' compendium of the extra-ordinary processes that go on inside our fragile skulls... This is a wonderful book, full of passages to make the reader stop and stare, if only in the mirror. -- Michael Simkins * Mail on Sunday *
A sparkling tour of our senses and the way in which we are embodied... [It] makes the world seem a more interesting place and life that much more important. -- Nicholas Fearn * Independent *

Author Bio

Raymond Tallis was Professor of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Manchester until 2006. A poet, novelist and philosopher, he was listed by the Independent in 2007 as one of fifty 'Brains of Britain', and in 2005 Prospect magazine named him as one of Britain's leading Public Intellectuals. The Raymond Tallis Reader was published in 2000 by Palgrave Macmillan, and his most recent book, Hippocratic Oaths, was published in 2004 by Atlantic Books.