A few months ago a neuroscientist named Carl Schoonover sent me the galleys of a coffee table book made for my kind of coffee table. It’s a visual history of the brain, using images to tell the story of neuroscience from its earliest roots to today’s awesome brain scans and micrographs. The book, called Portraits of the Mind: Visualizing the Brain from Antiquity to the 21st Century is just out. So rather than just blurb and run, I thought I’d share a peek into it with you.

Originally published October 26, 2010. Copyright 2010 Carl Zimmer.