Rating: 
Summary: "JUST ONE MORE ELABORATE CONFIGURATION OF PROTEINS"
Review: Marcus says, "From a mind's-eye view, brains may seem awfully special, but from a gene's-eye view, brains are just one more elaborate configuration of proteins."
This book is a compilation of very recent research about how the brain as an organ puts itself together. This process is not unlike the process for any other organ, but results in a product that is highly malleable and ripe for environmental adjustment. The book has been explained very adequately by many reviewers, so I will mainly try to provide you with some representative quotes and add only a few comments.
About Nature vs. Nurture:
"The nativists are right that significant parts of the brain are organized even without experience, and their opponents are right to emphasize that the structure of the brain is exquisitely sensitive to experience."
" At the core of our story has been a tension between the evidence that the brain can - like the body - assemble itself without much help from the outside world, and the evidence that little about the brain's initial structure is rigidly cast in stone.....To an earlier generation of scholars, the evidence for innateness and the evidence for flexibility seemed almost irreconcilable. Most scholars simply focused their attention on the stream of evidence they were more impressed with....Both sides have their points. The brain is capable of awesome feats of self-organization - and equally impressive feats of experience driven reorganization. But the seeming tension between the two is more apparent than real: Self-organization and re-organization are two sides of the same coin, each the product of the staggering amount of co-ordinated suites of autonomous yet highly communicative genes."
The above non-debate (to a hard science person) is well-covered, but the jist of the book is more about how the pre-wiring occurs, relying occasionally on computer science analogies:
"Each gene acts like a single line in a computer program."
"As soon as the IF part of the gene's IF-THEN rule is satisfied, the process of translating the template part of the gene into it's corresponding protein commences."
"With one more trick - regulatory proteins - that control the expression of other genes - nature is able to tie the whole genetic system together, allowing gangs of otherwise unruly free-agent genes to come together in exquisite harmony."
"Each gene does double duty, specifying both a recipe for a protein and a set of regulatory conditions for when and where it should be built. Taken together, suites of these IF-THEN genes give cells the power to act as parts of complicated improvisational orchestras."
How do the "billions of neurons in your brain" develop "trillions of connections between them." There is a well done scientific description given, but I also like his caricature description: "Even in a simple organism like a worm, the mechanics of (neuron) migration are so complicated they could have been borrowed from one of John Madden's playbooks. Cell number 1 goes right, number 2 goes left, and cell 3 goes long for a pass."
About language development:
" If language came onto the scene relatively quickly by evolutionary standards, it is because much of the genetic toolkit for building complex cognition was already in place."
"To understand the origin of language will be to understand how a relatively small set of new genes coordinates the actions of a much larger set or pre-existing genes."
"If language arose de novo, it would, I suspect, have to go through a long series of gradual steps, but if language arose by a novel combination of existing elements - such as neural structures for memory, the automatization of repeated actions, and social cognition - it is possible that it could have developed relatively quickly."
"A language module may depend on a few dozen or a few hundred evolutionarily novel genes, but it is likely to depend heavily on genes - or duplications of pre-existing genes - that are involved in the construction of other cognitive systems, such as the motor control system, which coordinates muscular action, or the cognitive systems that plan complex events."
There is lots more, including an appendix on methods for reading the genome, but I'll close with this quote from the final chapter: "In the coming decades, we will all - collectively , as a society - need to decide what we think about biotechnology and what applications we are and are not willing to allow. The debates we have now, about cloning and stem cell research, pale in comparison to debates we are likely to encounter as the technology for manipulating genes advances."
About a personal item:
When I was in school, I decided that I needed to study a concept an arbitrary number of times (say, 5 times), maybe from the different points of view of several scientific disciplines, in order to really learn it. I guessed that synaptic and neuronal pathways could be built up like bicep muscles. Marcus covers this and calls it "synaptic strengthening," along with a lengthy explanation that "More than a hundred different molecules may be involved, and there are at least 15 distinct steps in the process."
I highly recommend this excellent book.
Rating:
Summary: From the cover: Chomsky, Pinker, Gardner and more...
Review: "Expert and lucid ... carries the reader to the edge of current knowledge in areas of great fascination and promise."
- Noam Chomsky "In this crystal-clear and entertaining book, Marcus offers new ideas for how to integrate what we know about the thinking, talking person. [His] brilliantly original book is a contribution both to popularizing science and to science itself."
- Steven Pinker "This is without doubt the clearest account of the relationship between genes and environment that I have ever read. Marcus has digested an enormous amount of information from very diverse fields and integrated it into a smooth-flowing, user-friendly whole."
- Derek Bickerton, author of Language and Human Behavior "The Birth of the Mind is fast, accurate, and informative-an excellent overview of new ideas and research. Gary Marcus will light all eight of your brain's lobes!"
- Greg Bear, author of Darwin's Children "Engaging and clear... covers a truly amazing range."
- Richard C. Atkinson, past President, University of California "Gary Marcus has written the real deal. This book is smart, tough, and insightful."
- Michael S. Gazzaniga, author of Nature's Mind "If you've ever wondered about the space between genes and the mind, here's the book that connects the dots. Marcus's book is clear, fascinating, and up-to-date."
- Howard Gardner, author of Frames of Mind
Rating:
Summary: From the cover: Chomsky, Pinker, Gardner and more...
Review: "Expert and lucid ... carries the reader to the edge of current knowledge in areas of great fascination and promise."
- Noam Chomsky "In this crystal-clear and entertaining book, Marcus offers new ideas for how to integrate what we know about the thinking, talking person. [His] brilliantly original book is a contribution both to popularizing science and to science itself."
- Steven Pinker "This is without doubt the clearest account of the relationship between genes and environment that I have ever read. Marcus has digested an enormous amount of information from very diverse fields and integrated it into a smooth-flowing, user-friendly whole."
- Derek Bickerton, author of Language and Human Behavior "The Birth of the Mind is fast, accurate, and informative-an excellent overview of new ideas and research. Gary Marcus will light all eight of your brain's lobes!"
- Greg Bear, author of Darwin's Children "Engaging and clear... covers a truly amazing range."
- Richard C. Atkinson, past President, University of California "Gary Marcus has written the real deal. This book is smart, tough, and insightful."
- Michael S. Gazzaniga, author of Nature's Mind "If you've ever wondered about the space between genes and the mind, here's the book that connects the dots. Marcus's book is clear, fascinating, and up-to-date."
- Howard Gardner, author of Frames of Mind
Rating:
Summary: Genes and the Brain
Review: A fascinating look at the cutting-edge developments in our understanding of how the brain develops, dragging the mind with it, both in the individual and through evolution. The gene is the central player but nurture is properly balanced with nature or, rather, the tension between the two is defused. The exposition is clear and organized in language accessible to the scientifically naïve without being pretentious.
Rating: 
Summary: Current and well written if not especially new.
Review: Although I found The Birth of the Mind by Gary Marcus to be a very well written book, I don't think that the author has added anything significantly new. Anyone who has read Penrose, Pinker or Dawkins is pretty much aware of the theory of mind as emergent property of brain function. Anyone who has kept abreast of research in genetics is aware that most of what we are as biological beings is dictated by our DNA. That the brain and the mind are part of that is hardly a surprise either. Of Dr. Marcus's illustrations of physical and cognitive dysfunction drawn from neurology and neurophysiology, few were new and most have been discussed in far greater detail in other volumes, the best known probably being Oliver Sac's The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.
What the author does do is put all of the most recent work together in a very cogent and readable manner for the average reader on the subject. His friendly, chatty writing style makes the subject very accessible. A youthful Associate Professor in the department of psychology at NYU, with a primary research focus in the brain and the mind in cognitive psychology, he is well placed to pull recent and germane literature together. For anyone who has read very little about the topic but who wishes to get a well rounded idea of the subject, this is a good place to start. It's current and well written even if the conclusions are not especially new.
For THOSE WRITING TERM PAPERS in psychology, history of science,or philosophy, this book might provide you with a large, very current collection of sources from which to begin your own literature search. Most of them come from 1995-2002. Among the list of periodicals are journals like the American Journal of Human Genetics, Brain Research, Cognition, Journal of Comparative Neurology, Journal of Neurobiological Science, Nature, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA, and Science. Some of these, like Science and Nature, will be readily available in most college libraries and even some local public libraries, while others will only be available at large university, especially those associated with medical schools.
Rating:
Summary: Current and well written if not especially new.
Review: Although I found The Birth of the Mind by Gary Marcus to be a very well written book, I don't think that the author has added anything significantly new. Anyone who has read Penrose, Pinker or Dawkins is pretty much aware of the theory of mind as emergent property of brain function. Anyone who has kept abreast of research in genetics is aware that most of what we are as biological beings is dictated by our DNA. That the brain and the mind are part of that is hardly a surprise either. Of Dr. Marcus's illustrations of physical and cognitive dysfunction drawn from neurology and neurophysiology, few were new and most have been discussed in far greater detail in other volumes, the best known probably being Oliver Sac's The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.
What the author does do is put all of the most recent work together in a very cogent and readable manner for the average reader on the subject. His friendly, chatty writing style makes the subject very accessible. A youthful Associate Professor in the department of psychology at NYU, with a primary research focus in the brain and the mind in cognitive psychology, he is well placed to pull recent and germane literature together. For anyone who has read very little about the topic but who wishes to get a well rounded idea of the subject, this is a good place to start. It's current and well written even if the conclusions are not especially new.
For THOSE WRITING TERM PAPERS in psychology, history of science,or philosophy, this book might provide you with a large, very current collection of sources from which to begin your own literature search. Most of them come from 1995-2002. Among the list of periodicals are journals like the American Journal of Human Genetics, Brain Research, Cognition, Journal of Comparative Neurology, Journal of Neurobiological Science, Nature, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA, and Science. Some of these, like Science and Nature, will be readily available in most college libraries and even some local public libraries, while others will only be available at large university, especially those associated with medical schools.
Rating:
Summary: An amazing story, very well told
Review: As a general reader who is interested in understanding more about how the world works, this book was a revelation. It gives a coherent and engaging explanation of how the human brain has evolved. I have recently sent the book as a gift to family members of diverse interests, and they loved it too.
Rating:
Summary: Extremely fascinating!
Review: Currently working as a bookseller I found this book, written in clarity, to extend Gary Marcus' research even further from his first book (The Algebraic Mind). In a different approach and completely convincing, Gary reviews how the schematics of the genome is not just a blueprint, but something far more complex, enabling the functional ability of trillions of cells from a mere 30,000 genes. Self-contained and excitingly written this book assumes little prior knowledge that made it hard for me to put it down. Unifying the obtuse battle bewteen nature and nuture Gary Marcus has written a book that will become a Scientific bestseller.
Rating: 
Summary: A time-wasting work of staggering ineptitude
Review: I recently picked up a copy of Marcus' new opus in the secondhand book store near campus. I wish that I hadn't picked it up at all. Who the hell does Gary Marcus think he is? He arrogantly believes that he has solved the mind-brain problem. Psychologists, neuroscientists, and theologians everywhere take note: You're out of a job. If you believe that, you'll believe that pixies live behind my house. This book is not of little consequence, it's of no consequence at all. I hope the secondhand bookstore has a return policy.
Rating:
Summary: Recommended reading
Review: I think "The Birth of the Mind" is a great book. Very likely to be of interest to anyone who has ever wondered how the genome influences the mind. Marcus explains it all in easily understandable language. Well done!
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