THE BARMAID'S BRAIN (Book Review)

Ever wonder how some waiters remember numerous food orders, without the helpof a memo pad? In The Barmaid's Brain (Freeman, $23.95), Jay Ingram, co-host and producer of @discovery.ca, the Discovery Channel's daily science program, ponders this and many other science mysteries in a series of eminently readable essays. Although the topics cover the full spectrum of science, at least half of them bear directly on psychological puzzles, including why we laugh, the role fungus played in Salem witchcraft, whether or not loan of Arc was mentally ill, and, yes, even how barmaids remember a dozen orders at a time.

Edited By Paul Chance, PH.D.