Right Hand, Left Hand: The Origins of Asymmetry in Brains, Bodies, Atoms and Cultures (Hardcover)

~ Chris McManus (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From The New England Journal of Medicine

Is failure of parity conservation in physics the reason conservatives are called right-wingers and liberals are called left-wingers? If the very concept eludes you, you need to read Chris McManus's grand unified theory of asymmetry. Professor of psychology and medical education at University College London and editor of the journal Laterality, McManus brings a lively erudition to "the world (cosmos), the small (micros) and the great (megas) -- each with its own handedness." Under his tutelage, you will learn that one and a half million years ago, Homo habilis invented the toothpick and held it with the right hand, that the name of the Aztec war god, Huitzilopochtli, means "left-handed hummingbird," and that left-handedness was at one time illegal in Albania. You will encounter Immanuel Kant ruminating over absolute versus relational space, Dr. Thomas Watson describing situs inversus, Louis Pasteur discovering dextro- and levo-enantiomers, Paul Broca examining an aphasic patient who could say only the word "tan," Ernst Mach declaring that a symmetric brain cannot distinguish asymmetric stimuli or make asymmetric responses, and Wolfgang Pauli pondering whether "the Lord is a weak-left-hander." You will gaze on Paolo Uccello's 15th-century fresco of a clock that goes counterclockwise, Johann Tischbein's portrait of Goethe showing the Great Man with two left feet, and Federico Fellini's witty doodles after a stroke that resulted in hemispatial neglect. Gustave Coriolis will explain to you why tornadoes in the northern hemisphere spin counterclockwise whereas tornadoes in the southern hemisphere spin clockwise, and Richard Feynman will explain to you why mirrors do not reverse right and left but rather front and back. You will also be introduced to Professor McManus's own genetic model of right- and left-handedness and to his belief that the persistence of a gene allowing a small minority of the population to be left-handed might be adaptive for the population as a whole. After this intellectual smorgasbord, will you be persuaded that perturbations of the weak force are the reason that Edward Kennedy sits on one side of the aisle and Trent Lott on the other? I was not; rather, I was reminded of Murray Gell-Mann's remark (referring to Roger Penrose's attempt to explain consciousness in terms of quantum gravity) that we do not deal with earthquakes in terms of quarks. Persuaded or not, however, you will greatly enjoy the time you spend in Professor McManus's company. John C.M. Brust, M.D.
Copyright © 2003 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved. The New England Journal of Medicine is a registered trademark of the MMS.

Review

An engaging, erudite read on handedness ... full of astonishing facts and anecdotes that readers will want to shake his hand. -- Charles Rousseaux, Washington Times, September 15, 2002

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press; 1 edition (September 30, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674009533
• ISBN-13: 978-0674009530
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #970,693 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting for both left & right handers, March 23, 2004

By	Keith Appleyard "kapple999" (Brighton, UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I'm a 'lefty', 'southpaw', 'cack-handed' etc. My daughter bought me this for my birthday. It was a very interesting read.

The only downside was that some of the chapters seemed too long, at over 30 pages? There were points when the topic of the chapter seemed exhausted, and was strung out, and on more than one occasion my interest waned, only to perk up on the next page when some new issue was introduced, and off we went again?

What I liked best was the little anecdotes, like how it took years for Canada to decide whether to drive on the Left or the Right, with British Columbia & the Maritime Provinces not changing over until after the First World War, and then still over a number years between 1920 and 1924. Similarly how Western & Eastern Austria drove on different sides of the road until 1938.

A fascinating read.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Science, Serendipity, Universality, March 17, 2009

By	R. S. Nelson (SF Bay Area) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Right Hand, Left Hand: The Origins of Asymmetry in Brains, Bodies, Atoms and Cultures (Paperback)

More than any other author I can recall, Chris McManus brings the joy and the fun of scientific discovery to whomever will devote a little study and attention. Like any worthwhile scientific pursuit, some discipline is required to reap rewards, but the tour Dr. McManus leads you on is DAZZLING! I received "Right Hand Left Hand" as a Christmas gift from my brother, a physics professor, and felt some duty to read this odd looking volume. Starting at the beginning was slow, so I skipped ahead to Chapter 9, "Ehud, son of Gera"... From there it was an engaging, exciting, very informative read through the entire book!

Dr. McManus weaves a tapestry of self discovery from an amazing variety of scientific (and non-scientific too!) sources. The common theme that I sensed wasn't so much human left or right handedness , though this topic receives comprehensive coverage, but the process of scientific inquiry and discovery. Frequently, Dr. McManus relates the observation and recording of an oddity or unusual event where the discoverer did not have the least understanding of its significance. Only after other minds have absorbed and shared the knowledge, does it begin to be synthesized into an elegant structure of self discovery and often of great usefulness.

Dr. McManus moves easily through many deep fields of knowledge, and offers footnoted pathways for curious readers to pursue. His website, www.righthandlefthand.com expands on the footnotes and offers extra exploration opportunities. Biology and evolution, astrophysics, art history, archeology, geology, molecular chemistry, and even literature and poetry are all part of the journey!

I'll give one example from Chapter 6 "The toad, ugly and venomous", which starts out quoting from Lewis Carroll's Alice Through the Looking-Glass... I remember Carroll's book as a pleasant diversion, not as information to be mined for its scientific value! Dr. McManus deftly relates Carroll's ideas to the arcane but vital concept of "chirality" in molecular chemistsry...

Right Hand Left Hand is an excellent book, and I highly recommend it!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating exploration of right and left, March 9, 2007

By	one-from-overseas (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Right Hand, Left Hand: The Origins of Asymmetry in Brains, Bodies, Atoms and Cultures (Paperback)

This book definitely makes one pay more attention to asymmetry and what it means. The book is full of very interesting research, characters,and anedoctes, and it definitely tickle one's curiosity about the whole topic. I am left-handed, but I think that right-handed people would be just as interested, also because handedness is by no means the only asymmetry explored here.
I had only two (small) problems with this book: the author proposes his genetic model for handedness stating that it is a hypothetical model. Later in the book, however, he seems to take the model a bit too much as if it were real. And the final few chapters seem a bit rushed, compared to the initial ones. All in all, a good and interesting read.