Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: My Plastic Brain
WORK NOTES: Title was published as Override in the UK and Australia
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 1975
WEBSITE: https://www.carolinewilliams.net/
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY: United Kingdom
NATIONALITY:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: n 2017070280
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/n2017070280
HEADING: Williams, Caroline, 1975-
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040 __ |a DLC |b eng |e rda |c DLC
046 __ |f 1975-01-23 |2 edtf
100 1_ |a Williams, Caroline, |d 1975-
670 __ |a My plastic brain, 2018: |b ECIP t.p. (Caroline Williams; a science journalist and editor, a feature editor and regular contributor to New Scientist; She holds a BSc in biological sciences from Exeter University and an MSc (Distinction) in science communication from Imperial College London) data view (b. 01/23/1975)
PERSONAL
Born January 23, 1975; children: one son.
EDUCATION:Exeter University, B.Sc.; Imperial College London, M.Sc. (with Distinction).
ADDRESS
CAREER
Editor, science journalist, and author. Co-presenter for podcast, New Scientist.
AVOCATIONS:Brainstorming for children’s fiction.
WRITINGS
New Scientist, contributor and feature editor. Also contributor to periodicals, including Boston Globe, Guardian, BBC Earth, and BBC Future.
SIDELIGHTS
Caroline Williams specializes in the field of scientific journalism, her main formats being radio and magazines. For years, she has worked with BBC, as well as with New Scientist. She was involved with the production of a podcast for New Scientist, as well as numerous shows aired by BBC. She parted from New Scientist in the year 2010 to work freelance. Her writing has been featured in such periodicals as Boston Globe and the Guardian. In addition to her own writing, Williams has also served as an editor of books—namely, Your Conscious Mind: Unravelling the Greatest Mystery of the Human Brain and How Your Brain Works: Inside the Most Complicated Object in the Known Universe.
My Plastic Brain: One Woman’s Yearlong Journey to Discover if Science Can Improve Her Mind is Williams’s own book, and focuses on her subject of expertise: science. The book is the result of a year’s worth of research Williams embarked upon, all for the purpose of learning the brain and one’s ability to heighten their brain function. To test the theories regarding this subject, Williams tries out several different experiments on her own brain. She also conducts conversations with numerous specialists and visits labs devoted to researching the topic. This quest leads Williams across the globe, visiting the likes of Ghent University, Boston, Oxford University, Philadelphia, and several other locations. Much of the experiments Williams participates in seek to assist with one specific area of brain function, such as improving focus or making anxious thoughts less prevalent and frequent. Williams herself looks to tweak a number of brain functions: comprehension of numbers, attention, the awareness of time, anxiety, navigation, and creativity. All of these topics are currently of special interest to researchers looking to learn more about cognitive improvement.
Some of the experiments Williams joins in on produce better results than others. She displays all of the data she collected during this period in the form of diagrams and other pieces of pictorial data for readers to glean. Williams also offers her own advice as far as the best ways to strengthen brain function. A Publishers Weekly contributor wrote: “Williams is a relatable guide, but readers looking to glean practical advice may find her recommendations uninspiring.” In an issue of Kirkus Reviews, one writer called My Plastic Brain “an easy-to-read journey through the world of brain research that gives a glimpse of what is happening there, all done with a highly personal touch.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, February 1, 2018, review of My Plastic Brain: One Woman’s Yearlong Journey to Discover if Science Can Improve Her Mind.
Publishers Weekly, January 1, 2018, review of My Plastic Brain, p. 50.
ONLINE
Caroline Williams website, https://www.carolinewilliams.net (June 19, 2018), author profile.
Bio
I am a UK-based science journalist with over 15 years experience in magazine and radio journalism.
Over the years I have written extensively for New Scientist magazine, and spent 5 years in-house as a feature editor, contributing to some of the magazine’s top-selling cover stories. My work has also appeared in the Guardian, BBC Future, BBC Earth and the Boston Globe.
As well as my own book, Override (published as My Plastic Brain in the US) I have also edited two of New Scientist’s Instant Expert Guides: How Your Brain Works: Inside the most complicated object in the known universe (John Murray, 2017) and Your Conscious Mind: Unravelling the greatest mystery of the human brain (John Murray, 2017)
I have also both produced and presented radio programmes and reports for the BBC, contributing to the Science, Natural History and Children’s Radio output. I was also the regular co-presenter of the New Scientist podcast, along with Ivan Semeniuk, between 2006 and 2010.
In 2010 I left New Scientist and returned to the world of freelancing, working a lot for my old colleagues, but also elsewhere. My aim – and the reason I love what I do – is to learn new and exciting things and share them in the most entertaining way I can think of.
When I am not writing about science I make up children’s stories to amuse myself and my son and hopefully other people in the not-too-distant future.
Williams, Caroline: MY PLASTIC BRAIN
Kirkus Reviews.
(Feb. 1, 2018):
COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Williams, Caroline MY PLASTIC BRAIN Prometheus Books (Adult Nonfiction) $24.00 3, 13 ISBN: 978-1-63388-391-8
A British science writer uses her own brain to explore what researchers have been working on and to discover how her own shortcomings might
be overcome.
In her debut book, Williams, a consultant for New Scientist magazine and a contributor to the BBC and the Guardian, asks whether recent
advances in technology can improve some of her cognitive abilities. She chose six specific areas of focus--attention, anxiety, creativity,
navigation, time perception, and number sense--each of which is currently receiving intensive study by neuroscientists and psychologists, in order
to understand how performance can be improved. Among other places, the author's research travels took her to centers in Boston, Philadelphia,
and Lawrence, Kansas, in the United States, Oxford and Keele universities in England, and Ghent University in Belgium. She briefly profiles the
researchers and chronicles her informative interviews with them, also noting her personal experiences with whatever system they were working
on. The conditions of Williams' participation vary, and so do the results, often displayed in simple charts and diagrams that add little to the text
except perhaps a slight scientific air. Readers hoping to improve their own cognitive abilities may feel a bit of a letdown by the author's oldfashioned,
down-to-earth advice: exercise your body, preferably outdoors, learn mindful meditation but also allow your mind to wander, engage
in a mentally challenging hobby, and pick the skill you want to improve and practice it in real life. In the concluding chapter, Williams reports
that the world of neuroscience is "teetering on the brink of a new world," and based on the advances already underway, the future is likely to be
full of technological innovations that may well enhance one's brain power.
An easy-to-read journey through the world of brain research that gives a glimpse of what is happening there, all done with a highly personal
touch.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Williams, Caroline: MY PLASTIC BRAIN." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Feb. 2018. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A525461404/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=c42cc64b. Accessed 4 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A525461404
My Plastic Brain: One Woman's Yearlong Journey to
Discover if Science Can Improve Her Mind
Publishers Weekly.
265.1 (Jan. 1, 2018): p50.
COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
My Plastic Brain: One Woman's Yearlong Journey to Discover if Science Can Improve Her Mind
Caroline Williams. Prometheus, $24 (320p) ISBN 978-1-63388-391-8
Science journalist Williams peers into her own mental skills and limits in this somewhat scientifically conservative overview of human
neuroplasticity. She spends a year traveling to laboratories, talking to experts, and experiencing various methods to improve brain performance.
Williams uses a well-established approach to first-person narrative reporting: trying things out on herself. Discarding both the discredited idea of
improving general brain health through training puzzles and the idea of focusing on structural changes rather than functional ones, Williams
pinpoints specific executive function skills to address, such as reducing anxiety and directing attention. Her trials are primarily lab experiences,
including physical brain stimulation of the prefrontal cortex to enhance creativity and transcranial random noise stimulation to enhance number
skills. A belt that buzzes in the direction of magnetic north, to help train navigation circuits, gets a real-world trial. Williams hones her approach
as she learns, discovering that "to build brainpower, it's not muscle you want, it's flexibility." Some chapters include boilerplate advice to
exercise, "practice navigating in unfamiliar territory," and "do some easy math" to keep from getting rusty. Williams is a relatable guide, but
readers looking to glean practical advice may find her recommendations uninspiring. Illus. (Mar.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"My Plastic Brain: One Woman's Yearlong Journey to Discover if Science Can Improve Her Mind." Publishers Weekly, 1 Jan. 2018, p. 50.
General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A522125013/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=512e658a. Accessed 4 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A522125013