Your Brain Makes You a Different Person Every Day - Issue 91: The Amazing Brain

Brain "plasticity" is one of the great discoveries in modern science, but neuroscientist David Eagleman thinks the word is misleading. Unlike plastic, which molds and then retains a particular shape, the brain's physical structure is continually in flux. But Eagleman can't avoid the word. "The whole literature uses that term plasticity, so I use it sparingly," he says. Eagleman also discounts computer analogies to the brain. He's coined the term "livewired" (the title of his new book) to point out that the brain's hardware and software are practically inseparable. Eagleman is a man of prodigious energy. An adjunct professor at Stanford University, he's also been a novelist, TV host of PBS's The Brain, and science advisor for the HBO series Westworld.