Incredibly interesting and insightful.

Listening to Kandels' autobiography has really made much of the history of science come alive for me. Names and great figures of science I've read about elsewhere (particularly Freud, Crick, etc.) are contextualized as Kandel offers a unique perspective on the development of the study of the mind. He recounts in detail his life work and research, but in an accessible way for someone like me (someone who has only taken one intro to neuroscience class in college). I found his comments about his famous Aplysia experiments, psychoanalysis, mental illness, consciousness, and more fascinating. He expertly weaves his professional and personal life, and some of the most engaging sections include his youth, escape from Austria, and his illuminating comments regarding anti-semitism.

Kandel's writing kept me in pleasant company for a few weeks worth of walking. If you are interested in learning and memory and the development of the science of the mind, you will enjoy this autobiography.

Kandel merges his own life story with the story of his career in quite an understandable fashion. Although I sometimes got lost while reading the hardcore neurology parts (which are not more than a few), in overall, I found it quite a good piece of work about the cognitive neuropsychology of memory. Kandel's work holds a Kandel (heh heh heh) to almost all the other books about cognitive neuropsychology.

Nobel Laureate talks about his life and career - gives a broad strokes description of the cellular and molecular basis of memory and the progress it took from zero in the 1950s to hero in 2000. In no small part due to the author.

Enjoyable, occasionally biochemically dense, but usually remarkably lucid (for a scientist). For those of you still unconvinced that abstract concepts like memory can be pinned down to molecules in nerve cells this is an effective antidote.

An absolutely brilliant book from a brilliant mind. Kandel's writing flows off the page and is so easy to follow, even as he delves into some pretty intricate physiology, but always with some personal stories. Humorous and human, this is how science should be written. Am loving it so far.

This book is Kandel's scientific autobiography, with emphasis on the science but bookended and interspersed with his life experiences. Trained to be a psychoanalyst, but finding it to be limiting and not all that scientific, he decided instead to focus on the biology of memory.

Starting from the basics, he found how nerve cells communicate, specifically how electrical and chemical reactions work, what starts them, and how they change in order to save memories. His explanations start from scratch, so that a layperson can understand, but it quickly gets more complicated. Right around where he learns the difference between the mechanisms for creating short-term and long-term memories (short-term is electrical; long-term is also chemical and also involves nerve cells growing additional connections), I backed off on trying to understand every detail. One time reading through is not enough to put this stuff into long-term memory! But I got the gist of all of it.

I very much enjoy seeing his devotion to the scientific method. He quotes John Eccles, an older associate, on being confronted with a different view of having an incorrect hypothesis.

I learned from [Karl] Popper what for me is the essence of scientific investigation - how to be speculative and imaginative in the creation of hypotheses, and then to challenge them with the utmost rigor, both by utilizing all existing knowledge and by mounting the most searching experimental attacks. In fact I learned from him even to rejoice in the refutation of a cherished hypothesis, because that too is a scientific achievement and because much has been learned by the refutation.

Through my association with Popper I experienced a great liberation in escaping from the rigid conventions that are generally held with respect to scientific research. . . . When one is liberated from these restrictive dogmas, scientific investigation becomes an exciting adventure opening up new visions; and this attitude has, I think, been reflected in my own scientific life since that time.

He goes into detail on how he chose and then adjusted his approaches to various stages of his work, giving us a fascinating inside perspective at how research works. I would like to find out how his lines of thought and research have progressed since this book was written, as it's 15 years old now.

A couple of things I didn't like, and these are differences of opinion rather than criticisms of the book: I hate animal research. I wasn't too upset about the sea slugs, but he did a lot of torturing mice (e.g., breeding specially anxious mice and then making them more anxious with electric shocks), and I'm sure killing them later. And he refers to research using monkeys. Much as I like the knowledge gained, I'd rather have slower scientific progress. With newer resources like fMRI, it's likely less necessary now too. (I've read about fMRI research with dogs, where the dogs freely choose to cooperate and are not harmed, and are family rather than laboratory dogs. That, I'm fine with.) Also, he has been involved in pharmaceutical and biotech companies and seems to feel fine with them. He notes others' objections, but doesn't seem to think the profit-based nature of the companies interferes with the science. Maybe it doesn't, too much, or in some companies, but I am skeptical.

The autobiographical material starts with the author's childhood in his Jewish family in Vienna, where he experienced the local Kristallnacht and from which his family managed to escape after the Nazis took over. Traumatic, though he only realized to what extent later in life. It continues through his associations with his scientific collaborators and others, which give interesting glimpses of that community. At the end, he devotes a chapter to receiving the Nobel prize and to reconnecting with Austria.

Two things I liked: One, he seems to think of women as people, and cites them for various scientific work they same way he does men. He portrays his wife as his intellectual and academic equal. I guess a lot of scientists are like that (my dad, a metallurgist, was), and it should be the norm, but for some reason, it seemed refreshing to me. Two, in that chapter about Vienna, he confronts people about anti-Semitism. Apparently, the Austrians did not go through a period of shame and re-evaluation after WWII, and made barely any reparations; the country acted like it was a victim despite the fact that it had many Nazis and was in general enthusiastic about eliminating the Jews. That left it still blatantly anti-Semitic (a quick Google search show that it still is). The author was instrumental in getting some changes made there in that regard.

I wish I could quote the whole of the last chapter, which talks about the scientific process and the scientific community, and shows where the various scientific disciplines of the mind and memory, both biological and psychiatric, are going, or could go, together. And more. Splendid.

Love this book. It is a wonderful and dexterous mix of his personal life, his philosophy, the science he has helped reveal, and a comprehensive view of the current knowledge of organic mental functioning. I really like his writing style and you can tell he is an exceptionally talented scientist and thinker.

Wonderfully illuminating book on the "new science of the mind" and a life journey from Nazi Vienna to Nobel. At times too stuck in the weeds of molecular biology and meandering memoir, but generally outweighed by moments of exciting detail and sweeping perspective.

A very readable science book for the layperson, explaining the basic neuroscience of memory. The author, a Nobel-prize-winning neuroscientist, weaves three threads together: a memoir about his own life, the history of thought and research on the workings of the brain, and an account of his own research into the biochemistry and physiology of memory formation. It's a tribute to the author's lucidity that I--whose 10th-grade biology class was 40 years ago now--was able to understand a lot of complex, cutting-edge science research. I expected to hit the wall that I always hit in reading an interesting-sounding Scientific American article, where the first paragraph poses a fascinating question, the second paragraph makes me think I'm ever so clever for understanding so much science, and the third paragraph loses me entirely at about the fourth word. But every time Kandel approached what I thought would be that sudden wall in his scientific explanations, he switched neatly back to an episode of his own life, thus leading me through the whole book believing that I was quite clever. Kandel's own early history, leaving Vienna just ahead of complete Nazi takeover, is compelling. He offers lots of insights for outsiders into the scientific research community, and a lot of history of how we came to know what we know about the human brain and consciousness.

I read the book on my Kindle and didn't realize there was a helpful glossary until I had finished the book.

I found this book incredibly enjoyable, easy to read, and oftentimes also moving, from its clear descriptions of how memories are formed in the brain to the author's quest to understand mental illnesses. There was a part in the middle where it got a bit too deep into biology (or at least for my knowledge and appreciation of biology and genetics).

However, unlike some other scientific divulgation books I read so far, there is a strong narrative autobiographical thread that kept my attention level up throughout the whole story, from the author's childhood in Vienna, his escape in the United States, and the many deep questions about the working principles of our minds (and our identities) that had driven the scientist in his research career. Highly recommended for a clear, renowned and comprehensive read about the neuroscience behind memory and learning.

Kandel begins and ends his memoir/neuroscience primer with bold declarations of faith, that consciousness itself, as well as (and of perhaps even greater import) the unconscious processes deduced by psychoanalytic investigations, can be accounted for entirely via molecular and cellular activities. The book is therefore a great education and challenge for those who are interested in the problems and possibilities of reductionism. Kandel's work, for which he won a Nobel prize, shows that the simplest forms of learning do have molecular and cellular correlates in simple animals. It seems premature, though, to get excited about reducing higher cognitive abilities to the neural level, and Kandel does acknowledge some major scientific and philosophical problems with reductionism, but mostly he remains optimistic. (Thus I was surprised to read that he once cautioned a colleague [rival?] against pursuing the question of consciousness -- it seems to go against everything he did and all that he explicitly recommends in the final chapter of his book!)

Some of the interesting threads Kandel weaves throughout this memoir include his childhood in Nazi Austria and his later, surprisingly recent, efforts to help Austrians acknowledge past atrocities; the brief histories of neuroscience he gives each time he begins describing a new topic of research he pursued; his unapologetic involvement with the biotechnology industry; and the many brief but vivid and gracious portraits he offers of his colleagues. Thankfully, his writing is clear, as well.

I would have liked to have learned more about Kandel's own experience with psychoanalysis. This is not a tell-all memoir, nor should it be, but some discussion of his own analysis might have helped the reader understand why Kandel remained allied with the tenets of psychoanalysis long after many reductionists would have discarded them. It might also have helped the reader understand why Kandel made some of the career moves that he made, important moves that seem inexplicable as the book now stands; for example, one professor told him to look to the cell for an understanding of the psyche -- and so he did, for the rest of his life. Without some sharing of his own analysis, Kandel deprives the reader of a clear understanding of why he became a reductionist, really -- other than that he just really enjoyed research, and research implies reductionism.

On the other hand, it probably is best that he didn't air his inner dynamics -- and he has plenty to say without all that.

One of the biggest questions plaguing behavioral biologists during the 20th century was the localization of the engram, or, a memory trace in the brain. Well, most of them who weren't dualists were looking in the brain. One of the most thorough studies of engram localization was performed by Karl Lashley, who spent a good chunk of his career doing cortical lesions on rodents and primates. he sums up his (mostly) negative results with this quote:

"I sometimes feel, in reviewing the evidence on the localization of the memory trace, that the necessary conclusion is that learning just is not possible...Nevertheless, in spite of such evidence against it, learning does sometimes occur."

That was 1954 or so. We're in the 21st century now, and how far have we come on localizing an engram? Some would claim we know more about memory circuits than any other brain function. Others would claim that memory is a lie, and we can't be sure we really remember anything. Those people usually wear kilts and clutter state university philosophy departments.

Kandel's autobiography is a nice mix of personal history, scientific history, and the the charmingly naïve obsessions which drive many of the greatest scientific discoveries of our time. He describes how he pioneered the use of the invertebrate Aplysia as a model system to study cellular bases of associative learning, in a network of some <1000 neurons. He also chronicles the discoveries of his peers working in other systems such as mammals, and discusses many convergent and divergent themes in the field of synaptic plasticity. The language is by far accessible to anyone with a rudimentary grasp of the English language, so no need to fear a bloated lesson in advanced neurophysiology.

The most interesting aspect of the book is his description of cultural history. I would have actually liked him to go more in depth into this (although others on this site have voiced differing opinions) as heritage is a great analogy to a sort of "cultural memory." This would have strengthened the autobiography as a trans-subject analysis of science, history, and autobiography instead of a memoir. He describes his efforts to reconcile certain moral battles which are still being fought in Europe, and briefly, his approaches to preserving his own culture.

This book was a dificult read for me. Nominally it has six sections, but it felt like 3 very distinctive stories. The first centered on Kandel's early life in Vienna, emigration to the US, and education and training. I liked how he weaved his own very distinct memories into his book on the formation of memories. The middle section was the toughest. It went into great detail explaining the biochemistry of nerve action and neuronal growth from stimulus. I have good science education, mostly physics & chemistry, and am interested in the subject, but the scientific material was still difficult to comprehend. The last section drew conclusions from the science, discussed 'recent' biotech developments, and wrapped up Kandel's career including his trips to Stockhom.

Being a former engineer and someone who enjoys the details of science, I wanted to know how the brain changes as memories are formed. From the 3 rough sections, I figured the middle would be my favorite, but it was my least. The illustrations were a life-saver, as it has been almost 30 years since I've taken a biology class. While challenging, this section and detail was necessary to the story Kandel was telling - how the science of the mind went from dualism of mind & body to current neuroscience where the brain's function is known to be a collection, albeit extremely large, of neurons, synapses & biochemical connections. I would fail a test on the scientific details Kandel writes, but feel it made the third main section much more meaningful.

I tend to be less interested in the biographies of scientists than in their discoveries, but Kandel's life is a miracle. The first and third sections work very well together as a coherent autobiography. His distinctive memories from many years ago give hints to the formation and permanence of memories. His biographical details also felt very integral to the 'hows and whys' of Kandel's scientific discoveries. Why did Kandel go into neuroscience? How did Kandel get to study what he did? Knowing his background made his scientific process easier to understand, and his background and scientific career lead directly into the last third of the book.

This book did much better for me as an autobiography of Kandel than it did as a primer on the biochemistry of neuroscience. I'm glad that I powered through the dense scientific section to get to the rewarding final third and to see Kandel's story come full circle in a way.