An antibiotic produced by a bacterium acts as a molecular snorkel to help with breathing. The bacterium infects and kills many people with cystic fibrosis, and plugging the snorkel could lead to treatments. (p. 8)

Imaging study reveals variation in brain activity depending on the severity of punishment a person decides.

What you don’t know about the brain could fill a book. That’s true even if you happen to be a brain surgeon or neuroscientist. Luckily, Zeman, a British neurologist, has painted A Portrait of the Brain in lucid, conversational prose. Zeman steps us through the brain’s inner workings, starting with the most fundamental element — the atom — and, by chapter, guiding us from there to the gene, to the protein, to the organelle, to the neuron … to the psyche and then even to the anatomy of the soul. Case studies drawn from Zeman’s practice illustrate exactly what happens to a perso...