Curious Behavior: Yawning, Laughing, Hiccupping, and Beyond - Hardcover

Robert R. Provine

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0674048512 ISBN 13: 9780674048515

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 2012

Synopsis

Provine boldly goes where other scientists seldom tread--in search of hiccups, coughs, yawns, sneezes, and other lowly, undignified, human behaviors. Our earthiest instinctive acts bear the imprint of our evolutionary origins and can be valuable tools for understanding how the human brain works and what makes us different from other species.

About this title

Review:

"An exercise in 'small science'- some of it speculative, all of it fascinating." --Nature

"Provine's investigations reveal captivating insights into the mundane." --New Scientist

"Pardon Me! A fearless Look at Our Bodies' Mundane Functions....With its many facts and anecdotes and unexpected stories, it begs you to continue where curiosity leads you, down both the boulevards and the back alleys of science." --New York Times

"Robert Provine is a real character. Not from a book, but from real life. "Could someone please make a movie about this scientist? He deserves to be a hero for more people than simply those who will read his work. He is a valiant man and this is an original book [...] He writes with wit. That is sometimes enough to keep me reading a book, but fortunately there is more. Provine fearlessly explores the borderlands of scientific experimentation by studying these non-verbal outputs of the body." --Tristan Bekinschtein, Times Higher Education, Thursday 15 November 2012

"Pardon Me! A fearless Look at Our Bodies' Mundane Functions....With its many facts and anecdotes and unexpected stories, it begs you to continue where curiosity leads you, down both the boulevards and the back alleys of science." --New York Times

About the Author:

Robert R. Provine is Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0674048512
• ISBN 13: 9780674048515
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 246