Researchers report restoring vision to people with a rare, genetic form of blindness. A different technique helped blind mice see again and could bring back some sight in people with macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa or other blinding diseases. (p. 8)

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...