1.5 kg is the average weight of a human brain. However, this tiny thing consumes 20% of all the energy we generate in a day. Why should we squander so much on one organ when all the others are no less vital for the normal functioning of the whole organism?

You’ll be able to find the answer to this and many other fascinating questions in Elena Belova’s book. Elena, a biochemist, bioinformatician, and neurophysiologist, will show you our brain from all the angles and perspectives and will share all the information, available to scientists at the moment. Can a person survive without a head? Why people with a phenomenal memory tend to be autistic? Which part of the brain is responsible for identifying emotions and what will happen if we switch it off? Why do we get distracted and tend to slack off (and can we do without it)? Why is grey matter grey? Why does coffee turn us into mutations? Why does alcohol make our speech slurred? And if our brain is such a wonder, why can we barely remember what we crammed for the exam just a month afterwards?