Principles of Neural Development

This book covered almost all the important topics in the field of developmental neurobiology, and they are arranged in a logic way, from general development to specific details, from simple functions to complicated ones, from systematic to cellular to molecular level. Then, in the end, they lead to the concise principles summarized by the authors. As for a new beginner in this magic field, this book supplies me with rich facts along the history of this developing science, as well as lots of inspirations. As for the professionals, this book is also worth reading as a excellent systematic review and a splendid panorama of the beautiful scenery in this field. There are several points about this book that impressed me deeply and lured me to read it time and time again that I want to list as below: 1) The book describes a lot of the classical experiments that have profoundly influenced the way this new science has developed. This is interesting, because it makes the dry principles juicy. Also the experiments form a kind of challenge for the reader, because you can always set yourself in the same situations as the brainy experimenters mentioned in the book, thinking and analyzing together with them and being for and against their views and conclusions. 2) Weaker voices from the opposite side in the heated historical discussions can also be heard in this book. This is of great significance, because the realistic record encourages you to discard the preconceptions and bravely stand out to doubt the deep-rooted theories and explanations. In fact, there are few sure things, and most are mysterious, which make science magic. 3) The tradition of a branch of science can never be ignored because, to a certain degree, it decides how this science will develop, to which direction it will go, and what the chief problems are that are of the greatest power to revolutionize the whole field. The book tells you the history, along the way it tells science. And it shows great respect to the legends in this realm of science by opening boxes in every chapter to focus your attention to their contributions and to their strong willing versus an arduous journey of research. 4) The authors¡¯ diligence can be sensed from every line of the book, and every point in the book is based on concrete facts accumulated from the authors¡¯ extensive reading and research. Every item of reference is listed along the text, so it is convenient for the reader to hunt the pith from the forest of scientific literature. The strict attitude of the authors makes the book able to stand the test of time. 5) There are a lot of diagrams in the book, which make the reading activity much faster and easy, and the images printed in the mind keep the memories vivid and clear. At the same time, the language of this book is easy to understand as well as accurate. In only three pages, it clarifies Hebel¡¯s theory of visual cortex, which won the Nobel¡¯s prize in the 1980s, and science should be made easier li