In this technology-driven age, it's tempting to believe thatscience can solve every mystery. After all, science has curedcountless diseases and even sent humans into space. But as JonahLehrer argues in this sparkling debut, science is not the only pathto knowledge. In fact, when it comes to understanding the brain,art got there first. Taking a group of artists -- a painter, apoet, a chef, a composer, and a handful of novelists -- Lehrershows how each one discovered an essential truth about the mindthat science is only now rediscovering. We learn, for example, howProust first revealed the fallibility of memory; how George Eliotdiscovered the brain's malleability; how the French chef Escoffierdiscovered umami (the fifth taste); how Cezanne worked out thesubtleties of vision; and how Gertrude Stein exposed the deepstructure of language -- a full half-century before the work ofNoam Chomsky and other linguists. It's the ultimate tale of arttrumping science. More broadly, Lehrer shows that there's a cost toreducin
