Brock's brain. About science, space and man

The book "Brock's Brain" is a deep and poetic story by an outstanding astronomer and astrophysicist about romance and responsibility, the risks and prospects of science.What place does it occupy in the life of humanity and how does it differ... from pseudoscience? Where did the myths about Atlantis, the Bermuda Triangle, ancient astronauts and emotions in plants come from and why is it important to debunk them? What planets and satellites of the solar system may be suitable for colonization, how did life originate and where in deep space is it still possible? How are planets and galaxies given names and what mistakes did great scientists make over many years of pursuit of the truth? How can science explain near-death experiences and how are they likely related to the birth experience? How does religion relate to science? What is the future of artificial intelligence and space exploration?All these thoughts were prompted by Carl Sagan's visit to the Parisian Museum of Man. In particular, he was shocked by the Paul Broca collection, which contains the brain of Broca himself, the great anthropologist, especially famous for the discovery of the area in the human brain responsible for articulate speech.For all the scale and information content of the book, the author's skill and the intonation unique to Sagan make its reading accessible and joyful for the widest reader.