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The Barmaid's Brain and Other Strange Tales from Science
In this collection of stories illustrating strange aspects of science, Jay Ingram explores some of the little-known quirks of human behaviour, reports on science''s attempts to re-examine history, and discusses curiosities of the natural world.'
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
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275 people want to read
About the author
Jay Ingram
56 books42 followersJay Ingram CM (born March 20, 1945) is a Canadian author and broadcaster. He was host of the television show Daily Planet (originally titled @discovery.ca), which airs on Discovery Channel Canada, since the channel's inception in 1995. Ingram's last episode of Daily Planet aired on June 5, 2011. Ingram announced his retirement but stated he will make guest appearances on Daily Planet. He was succeeded by Dan Riskin. His book The End of Memory: A Natural History of Aging and Alzheimer’s is forthcoming from St. Martin's Press in 2015.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
January 11, 2018
This is a nice little series of essays of very lightweight popsci, so light in fact that I had to hold the book with both hands to keep it from floating away. Jay Ingram is kind of an institution in my country and I was pleased to see that he worked Canada into just about every essay. The book is about 20 years old, which is amusing...there’s no mention of internet, bitcoins, blockchains or (thankfully) global warming. All of the essays were entertaining and informative, and the writing style is crisp, and he saves the best one for last: proposed journeys to outer space using buckytubes and maglev. But without any mention of Canadians. (Aside: A great title for a sci-fi blog: “buckytubes & maglev”)
December 23, 2009
The first few chapters/stories of this collection were not very interesting or written in a style that I found appealing, but after a little time and a few more pages I started really enjoying the factoids and humor of the author. The first story is about laughter and it is one of the least funny things in the book. I suggest skipping it. Move on to the more chuckle-worthy subjects like gluing moths to styrofoam boats, flies that fly so fast they would embed themselves into a bystander's flesh, the trouble with planarian cannibals and the mysterious aquatic ape. It sounds more vicious when I pick out my favorites... The writer is a gentle Canadian who prefers the question to the answer.
December 2, 2012
A collection of stories about science. Some of my favorites were the chapters about birds (tits) that learned to steal cream from bottles of milk, monks in the eleventh century who may have witnessed an asteroid hitting the moon, and a chapter on St. Joan of Arc and the possibility of a tuberculoma in her brain.
While I found the subjects of some chapters much more interesting than others, there was enough of interest in the book to hold interest in finishing it, and it is a quick read.
While I found the subjects of some chapters much more interesting than others, there was enough of interest in the book to hold interest in finishing it, and it is a quick read.
December 30, 2020
I love this type of book - the psych major in me perks up at any opportunity to learn more about our strange behaviors and ways and what actually, in the brain, causes them. This book was fascinating although some of the serious sciency sentences had my eyes kind of skimming over them because there are no receptors in my own brain capable of receiving, sorting, and comprehending them.
November 6, 2024
More like 3 1/2 stars. Each chapter of this book deals with some type of scientific or historical mystery, from how laughing evolved to the voice Joan of Arc heard to the quest for perpetual motion. This would make an excellent documentary series on PBS or the Discovery Channel of something similar.
March 7, 2022
Ingram is simply one of the best science communicators in the world. His writing is infused with his own fascinations with how the world works. The Barmaid's Brain is a fascinating look into consciousness told with Ingram's insight and wit.
September 17, 2018
Fun essays on weird science. Quite an old book so some of the science may have moved on.
January 6, 2021
My all time favorite!!
August 28, 2021
I'm not a science guy really, but I saw this in a books-on-a-stick so I grabbed it. Sometimes it's good to get out of your regular routine. Enjoyed it quite a bit, lots of fun factoids!
June 29, 2015
Jay Ingram has collected in
The Barmaid’s Brain
21 essays concerning human behavior, curiosities of life, science and history, natural battles and how things work. Each of them approaches a topic with the same left-field perspective.
For example, the barmaid of the title is able to remember 95% to 100% of a 15-drink order given to her out of sequence in the noisy environment of a busy bar. The essay The Barmaid’s Brain explores not only that we evidence these feats of memory, but why and how.
The Invention of Thievery looks at the way a learned behavior—in this case, birds removing foil caps from milk bottles to get at the cream—can spread through a population. The Vinland Map examines how we decide that a contended datum has been proved, especially when there is a strong belief structure in place to dispute it. An Uneasy Bargain probes the relationship between gene mapping (knowledge gathering) and genetic engineering, and asks the potent question, “Once we know that a mutant gene is the cause of a disease or condition, do we have a responsibility to eliminate it?"
The essays are written in an easy, approachable style, with a minimum of jargon, statistics or abstruse footnotes. If they lack some of the weight they might otherwise bring to some very weighty subjects, at least they may lead you to do the research on the questions you find intriguing. This is a great bathroom or coffee-table book—pick it up, read a few pages, put it down.
If you enjoy reading The Barmaid’s Brain , you’ll want the second book in Ingram’s series, The Velocity of Honey . Sadly, neither is available for Kindle.
For example, the barmaid of the title is able to remember 95% to 100% of a 15-drink order given to her out of sequence in the noisy environment of a busy bar. The essay The Barmaid’s Brain explores not only that we evidence these feats of memory, but why and how.
The Invention of Thievery looks at the way a learned behavior—in this case, birds removing foil caps from milk bottles to get at the cream—can spread through a population. The Vinland Map examines how we decide that a contended datum has been proved, especially when there is a strong belief structure in place to dispute it. An Uneasy Bargain probes the relationship between gene mapping (knowledge gathering) and genetic engineering, and asks the potent question, “Once we know that a mutant gene is the cause of a disease or condition, do we have a responsibility to eliminate it?"
The essays are written in an easy, approachable style, with a minimum of jargon, statistics or abstruse footnotes. If they lack some of the weight they might otherwise bring to some very weighty subjects, at least they may lead you to do the research on the questions you find intriguing. This is a great bathroom or coffee-table book—pick it up, read a few pages, put it down.
Even if one day scientists completely understand the wiring and chemistry of the human brain, it will still be difficult not to be amazed by an organ that can memorize the lyrics to all the Spice Girls’ songs after one hearing or conjure up the equations describing the origin of the universe. Even more amazing is that the same brain can do both…
If you enjoy reading The Barmaid’s Brain , you’ll want the second book in Ingram’s series, The Velocity of Honey . Sadly, neither is available for Kindle.
March 3, 2015
The book is a compilation of various science essays by the author Jay Ingram. It is arranged in five sections, starting out with Human Behavior and ending with How Things Work. Both of those sections I didn't enjoy as much as the Science and History and Natural Battles which were in the middle going towards the end. This leaves the second section being Curiosities of Life, which was mixed. For me the book started off slow, picked up in the middle, then crashed at the end, well sort of....the ending wasn't that bad.
Without listing off titles of the essays, I'll just say that when Ingram investigates the history and strange tales that science keeps trying to solve, these become interesting. Or perhaps it is my own tastes, as may be expected. I did find the essay about Joan of Arc fascinating, as well as the essay on the Salem witchcraft episode with the attempt to find scientific explanations on why these women behaved differently than one may expect in their society. The Vinland Map, perhaps the oldest map of North America was an intriguing tale of attempting to discover the origin, whether a fraud or actually from before Columbus. Perhaps what was the most fascinating with these essays was they end inconclusively. Science has not solved them definitively there are only theories, which are possibilities but nothing solid.
All in all the essays were decent. On a few occasions, particularly in the beginning it seemed the author tended to insert himself a bit more than you'd typically find for a reporter, but as Ingram is a host on the Discovery Canada show, maybe it's the role that he plays. I haven't seen the show, so it's hard to judge if the book follows his format. Overall a decent book.
Book Rating: 4 stars
Without listing off titles of the essays, I'll just say that when Ingram investigates the history and strange tales that science keeps trying to solve, these become interesting. Or perhaps it is my own tastes, as may be expected. I did find the essay about Joan of Arc fascinating, as well as the essay on the Salem witchcraft episode with the attempt to find scientific explanations on why these women behaved differently than one may expect in their society. The Vinland Map, perhaps the oldest map of North America was an intriguing tale of attempting to discover the origin, whether a fraud or actually from before Columbus. Perhaps what was the most fascinating with these essays was they end inconclusively. Science has not solved them definitively there are only theories, which are possibilities but nothing solid.
All in all the essays were decent. On a few occasions, particularly in the beginning it seemed the author tended to insert himself a bit more than you'd typically find for a reporter, but as Ingram is a host on the Discovery Canada show, maybe it's the role that he plays. I haven't seen the show, so it's hard to judge if the book follows his format. Overall a decent book.
Book Rating: 4 stars
January 2, 2011
I had hoped that this book would be a fastpaced, witty glimpse into science. Instead, what I found was a series of intriguing possibilities for science fiction or some other type of fiction. It was hard to read through the book; the density of detail of some of it was tiring. But I'd love to get a copy as a reference to go back and explore some of the ideas in fiction.
June 15, 2015
Although Jay Ingram's 'The Barmaid's Brain' might suffer in comparison to other science curiosity books it is still full of interesting looks at some lesser known nooks and crannies of the science world. The writing can be a bit clunky at times but Ingram comes through as someone genuinely curious and inspired by Science and the natural world. OK.
June 13, 2015
Lots of interesting bits in this little volume. Some of the stories are a bit technical, though. I find science writing, particularly about animals, to be endlessly fascinating. Worth the time to look this up and read it. See further comments about it on my blog: Sects and Violence in the Ancient World.
April 25, 2016
A nice little compendium of interesting scientific stories written for the layperson. No jargon, but not a great deal of depth either. Great for light reading or something to challenge yourself if you're not a regular non-fiction reader.
September 12, 2007
Did you know that scientists are trying to create a space elevator? Neither did I. This book is nerdy, but cool. Hard to explain - you just have to give it a look. Good stuff.
July 15, 2010
It's always nice to see a wide-ranging science book with humor and brevity. I happily read through it in one day.
March 20, 2011
One of my favorite books.
July 21, 2011
Lots and lots of fun and cool stuff. The writing style is a little less than engaging however. So a 4 on content, a 3 on composition – making an overall 3.
November 16, 2011
short chapters on all kinds of strange scientific studies...laughter, mirages, spilling beer...entertaining!
July 22, 2012
This is interesting, but I ended up giving up on it...I didn't want to think that much! :)
August 11, 2012
Interesting read. Not sure the watered-down science is always accurate as presented, but in small bits, it is a decent book.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews