Right Hand, Left Hand: The Origins of Asymmetry in Brains, Bodies, Atoms and Cultures by Chris McManus

Right Hand, Left Hand: The Origins of Asymmetry in Brains, Bodies, Atoms and Cultures Reviews

• 
  Lorraine

  I really liked this. It was hard-going for an average reader (ie, someone who has not trained in university science except for one pathetic semester in biology!) but still understandable. McManus is really, really, really obsessed with handedness, and goes into some science-y detail that I like (but might be off-putting for those who want a really easy read, or with no A'level backing in biology, etc).
  
  This is unlike many books on left-handedness, which are just superficial surveys. McManus is so obsessed with this that he sees the world in symmetrical/ asymmetrical terms, which is a refreshing change from how many people usually see it. He covers fields such as physics, mathematics, philosophy and literature (caveat emptor though, I'm not sure I agree with his generalisations, but this is quibbling from someone trained as a scholar of literature), and the very breadth of fields that he covers is admirable.
  
  The arguments that he makes make sense to me, although I am ill-placed to judge the merit of his theories, not being part of that scholarly field myself. I would be most interested to see what other scholars in his field think of this book :)
• 
  Sam

  I got to this book via Iain McGilchrist's "The Master and the Emissary" and came to it with high expectations... which were disappointed to the extent that I didn't complete it.
  
  Laterality is a deep and complex subject which, McManus's book's sub-title tells us, plays out at molecular, an anatomical and a cultural level. Paragraph-by-paragraph McManus's book is very stimulating. But he made it much too hard for this reader to follow the overall flow of the argument both within and across chapters. His chatty writing style, while likeable, does not help. There's no need for complex material to be serious in tone but where there's complexity I would prefer clarity over informality any day.
  
  If you are professionally interested in laterality then perhaps you will get past or not even notice the flaws I found. If, like me, you are an interested amateur then I would approach "Right Hand, Left Hand" with at least one of the following: trepidation; a pencil and notebook to scribble together the flow of the argument as you go; or a holiday where you can get through the whole thing quickly enough not to lose the thread from one chapter to the next.
  
  It's a great shame as the author very clearly both knows his stuff and is deeply excited and inspired by it. But poor editing is poor editing.
• 
  Psychophant

  This is a very difficult book to define, alternating between trivia and deep science, but always with a clear objective, to elucidate why we are asymmetrical, and just how asymmetrical we are.
  
  It is my first contact with McManus prose but he manages to transmit his obvious love for the subject while avoiding the excess of boredom. It also has the right balance of scientific fact and speculation to keep you interested.
  
  A surprising broad and academic book that covers neurology, chemistry, physics and embriology. among other disciplines. And amusing, many times. A must for left handed people, but also very educative for right handed, specially the mythbusting sections.
  
  
• 
  Menno

  This book is packed with information on the biological, medical, physical and socio-cultural aspects of symmetry, asymmetry, and chirality, and stories told with erudition and wit. It is unique in its kind. Probably because there is no other book that contains similar material, the author sometimes gives in to the temptation to overload his reader with every bit of information he can find on a particular aspect; at times, it is just too much, even for a chirality-afficionado like me. Still, a very valuable resource.
• 
  Kristin B

  i just started reading this one, but handedness was the topic of my very first science fair project. I proved on my three panels of cardboard that cats have a dominate "pawedness." Hoping the science in this book is a little more robust than mine...
• 
  Anh Thư

  Nh chỗ hay ho phết nhưng dài dòng lê thê quá! Không thấy giống một tác phẩm hoàn chỉnh kiểu nghiên cứu chuyên sâu. Thấy giống kiểu nghiên cứu góp nhặt và tích luỹ kinh nghiệm. Có mấy chỗ đọc chả hiểu lắm!! Nói chung là mình thích cái chủ đề này, và đọc xong cũng thấy thông não được xíu xíu
• 
  Thư Viện Mọt

  ⭐ Xin chào, là Mọt đây. Hôm nay Mọt lại có đôi ba câu hỏi với mọi người. Mấy câu hỏi này hồi Mọt còn bé cũng đã tự hỏi bản thân rất nhiều nhưng rồi cuối cùng lại tìm ra đáp án ở quyển sách này. Vậy liệu, có điều gì thú vị?
  
  ⭐ Đầu tiên là Mọt chơi piano từ bé, vẽ được bằng tay trái và viết bằng tay phải... nghe kỳ lại nhỉ vì rất ít những đứa trẻ dùng được cả 2 tay. Ngày bé lúc đi học cô giáo lớp 1 của Mọt cứ bắt là Mọt phải viết bài bằng tay phải nhưng mà Mọt lại thích viết bằng tay trái, thế là lại len lén ngồi vẽ bằng tay trái đến sau này hầu như Mọt dùng được cả 2 tay nhưng những người bạn xung quanh Mọt lại không thế. Chúng ta đều được học là não phải điều khiển tay trái, não trái điều khiển tay phải và ai thiên não nào sẽ có những thứ "hay ho hơn" người kia... vậy người làm mọi thứ đều được bằng 2 tay thì làm sao nhỉ?
  
  ⭐ Chung quy, các câu hỏi này sẽ được giải thích cuốn sách đã nói ngay nội dung về tay trái- tay phải, những bí ẩn ngôn ngữ, văn hóa, sự đối xứng trong não trái - não phải iên quan đến trái phải. Tất nhiên về nguồn gốc thực sự không dễ giải thích qua một cuốn dày 700 trang nhưng ít nhất phần nào đã có thể giải đáp những câu hỏi tưởng chừng như có gì đâu mà tìm hiểu, vốn dĩ nó là tự nhiên nên không cần phải giải thích làm chi.
  
  ⭐ Có lẽ điều Mọt để ý đến quyển sách này để mà viết đôi dòng review là cách tác giả dành không ít giấy mực cho việc đưa ra những luận điểm về các bài báo cáo trên thế giới chưa đủ thuyết phục. Ví dụ như: Picasso là người thuận trái trong khi thực sự ông thuận phải hay là so sánh não này trội hơn mà chưa chắc trong sự khẳng định.
  
  ⭐ Mọt không thể kể cho cậu nghe về quyển sách này một cách thấu hiểu hơn trừ phi cậu đọc nó và cùng Mọt cảm nhận từng câu chữ dưới trang sách . Hãy đọc để ngắm nhìn bức tranh tổng thể của riêng cậu và đón nhận những góc khuất mà chỉ cậu mới có thể hiểu rõ .
  Chúc cậu có một ngày đọc sách tốt đẹp.
  
  🌟 Nếu để phải đánh giá quyển sách này Mọt sẽ xếp em nó vào sách khá khó nhằn nhưng tầm 7 điểm nhé! Cậu cứ thử trải nghiệm xem.
  Yêu thương cậu ❤
• 
  Lam Giang Huu

  5/5.
  Một quyển sách tuyệt vời và rất hợp gu. Một chủ đề bí hiểm chạm tới những tầng sâu và cả bề rộng của tri thức, được trình bày rõ ràng và đầy thú vị. Đối với cá nhân mình, đây là một quyển sách khoa học tạo được sự lôi cuốn từ đầu đến cuối, không có nhiều cuốn sách về khoa học được viết đủ dễ hiểu với độc giả đại chúng như thế này. Vấn đề được xem xét từ đủ các góc độ, đủ các lĩnh vực từ sinh học, vật lý học, triết học, nhân loại học, văn hoá, đến ngôn ngữ, với các bằng chứng dữ liệu thực nghiệm, dữ liệu thống kê nhiều hơn các tư biện. Ngay khi ta cảm giác câu trả lời đã đủ thoả mãn, thì tác giả vẫn mở ra thêm những khía cạnh sâu sắc khác, để đi đến tận cùng của vấn đề. Có cả 1 chương các câu chuyện vô thưởng vô phạt về những hiểu lầm, những chuyện bên lề về trái-phải ko cần thiết phải xuất hiện trong sách, nhưng đã ở đó, để nói lên rằng tác giả chiêm nghiệm, thấu suốt và quan tâm đến vấn đề này tới mức nào. Dù phần kết luận được chính tác giả gọi là 1 giả thuyết khiêm tốn, nó như 1 bức tường sừng sững và vững chắc xây trên bề dày nghiên cứu, khó lòng lật đổ nỗi.
  Biết ơn dịch giả và ban biên tập đã mang quyển sách này đến với độc giả, và đã làm cho những vấn đề hóc búa trở nên dễ hiểu, bất kể rào cản ngôn ngữ.
• 
  JP

  Some books are above divine!!
  Why?
  Author take the subject religiously interpret and present genuine fact and make the reader to worship.... One such book is this
  
  It's an interestingly starts when a doctor open the chest of the dead patient found his heart on the right side.
  
  Analysis of left and right handed and the problem faced by left handed people.
  
  Superb!!
  Especially the analysis of brain of the left hand person and comparing scripture and sculptures and detail explanation of perception of the world about the use of left hand..
  And finally
  interesting component how human made of L-aminoacid and explaining it has been gifted by the deep outer space and sent through Meteors..
  And the beauty of all..!!
  it's an Utmost interesting and the concept run through 400 pages without any tiredness to the eyes of the reader
  Mind blowing book!!
• 
  Blair

  Very disjointed. This book rambles on and on till you miss the point. While there are some interesting items covered here, the author does not know how to organize the material into a coherent argument.
• 
  Đức Nguyên

  Not as expected
• 
  MeiMeiSam

  As a right handed person myself, I seldom recognize how difficult for those left handed to perform a simple task in the world of right handedness. The Universe has a Logic that things should be diverted to be right handedness but except a few examples on Polyssacharides and a few DNA. The former should be right handed and the latter should be also right handedbut the crtical life sustaining protein should be left handed. People have had already a reason to sustain a life in the owlrd of right handedness witht he priority that this universe might have a mirroring counterpart which might be left handedness in all things. Parity is a must whcih has been found in Quantum Physics that a compensation in the field of parity must have been an essentialism to divert what should be left handed and what shoul dbe right handed.
  Cycling means a perfectness in the nature of Universal mean. Any atoms must have a spin number that spin is existed in the universal mean on the natural logic as a kind of cycling perfectness to comply with On the evolutionary sense, protein that is life sustaining should be forever meant to be left handed as nayure has chosen left handedness on the protein to perform its tasks witht he identity of left handedness key. Those found on the comets are also some life sustaining version of protein that are left handed and these are chosen to carry on the life code on Earth for over 8 millions years since the first mammal was crawling from the pcean to become terrestrial organism. Human, hominids were splitted from then on.
  The Brain is a critical region for recognizing left or right but ususally Nature has chosen the left brain to rule the worldiness which is totally right handed world in the manifestation. Spoken words are manipulated by the left brain as language region is located at the left hemishere of the brain and the world are all right handedness which is under the control of left brain. In fact, evolutionary process has long been stuffed witht he codes of life as a kind of righ handedness owrld and the universal logic is also spoken in a right worldiness way.
  Upon Quantum Physics, atoms should have a spin but according to their subatomic worldliness, they are dividied into left spin and right spin. Parity has to be dicussed here that dimensional entities should be included in the field of Quantum Physics that dimensional enitites shoul dalso have a kind of mirroring counterparts. But the cosmology of the Universe always chooses Right handedness to manipulate this worldliness and right handedness is regarded as vitality to be essebtial factor to proliferate life forms.
  Indeed, we can say for a few words about possibility but the ubniverse is based on the foundation od right handedness to be started for anything to proliferate into possibility. The Cosmological Logic must have chosen a certain handedness to rule the worldliness and those other possibilities are just by-product to sustain the importanc eof the main character of the right handedness worldliness only.
  It can say that in a spoken sentence: there is a possible world of left handedness with everything in reverse abd the sentence spoken is possible that tyhe words consistng the sentence is legal that there might be a possible world like that. Then layers by layers, how many possible worlds are there to be legal and surviving? The main factor to determine the surviving or not surviving is only the ascribed foundation on the right handedness to manifest the worldliess.
  Upon Quantum Physics, there is a problem on three pairs of vectors which consummate the worldliness The superficial 2D is critical for diverting whether a possibility should be left or right. Our logic is always prenatally right handedness that our left brain rules the world to put thw orldliness into a possibility of Logic as it should have been and the the other possbilities, including right handedness worldiness, is jsut situated into the minor worldlness as a kind of mirroring entity.
• 
  Tyas

  Tackle down many myths about left-handedness and right-handedness.
  
  The following is my Indonesian review for the book, first posted in another site:
  
  Bapak McManus ini adalah seorang profesor psikologi yang terobsesi pada kanan dan kiri. Penelitiannya tentang konsep kanan dan kiri pun meluas, tidak hanya dalam bidang psikologi, tapi juga neurologi, biologi, sejarah, antropologi, dan banyak lagi. Tidak salah kalau buku ini digolongkan ke dalam 'tour de force'.
  
  Beberapa hal yang dijabarkan dalam buku ini yang mungkin membuat Anda terkejut, atau mungkin melegakan Anda karena mengkonfirmasi apa yang Anda yakini selama ini:
  
  - Kenapa ada bangsa yang menulis dari kiri dan ada yang dari kanan?
  
  - Apa betul ada bangsa yang kidal semua?
  
  - Apa betul dunia ini dipadati oleh simetri? (Jawabannya: TIDAK. Tubuh manusia pun tidak simetris. Jantung ada ke kiri-tengah, hati ke kanan. Tangan, kaki, dan wajah kita juga sebetulnya tidak simetris. Molekul-molekul juga tidak simetris!)
  
  - Betul tidak sih kalau manusia selama ini baru menggunakan sepuluh persen kapasitas otaknya? (Jawabannya: SALAH.)
  
  - Mengapa banyak bangsa yang mengasosiasikan kanan dengan baik dan kiri dengan buruk/jahat?
  
  - Betul tidak orang kidal lebih berbakat seni dan cerdas daripada orang yang tidak kidal? (Jawabannya: SALAH. Seringkali ini hanya propaganda orang kidal. Beberapa tokoh terkenal - Einstein misalnya - yang diklaim kidal, ternyata tidak kidal. Lucunya, tokoh kejam atau jahat yang jelas-jelas terbukti kidal, justru biasanya tidak disebutkan oleh para 'aktivis kidal' ini. Dan ada studi yang justru menunjukkan kalau orang-orang non-kidal justru lebih tinggi kecerdasannya dibandingkan orang-orang kidal... meski hanya sedikit.)
  
  - Apa betul otak pria yang bekerja cuma yang sebelah kiri sementara yang perempuan dua-duanya? (Ini pernah disebutkan oleh sebuah majalah perempuan di Indonesia. Jawabannya, SALAH. Lembaga-lembaga pendidikan juga banyak yang mengklaim bisa mengembangkan kemampuan satu belahan otak anak [biasanya yang kanan, karena belahan otak yang ini dianggap sumber kreativitas]. Kedua belahan otak bagaimanapun hanya SEBELAH, dan baru berfungsi sebagai otak jika keduanya berfungsi dan saling terhubung.)
  
  - Kita sering dijejali informasi bahwa otak kanan itu berperan dalam kemampuan berbahasa, seni, dll, sementara yang kiri lebih matematis, logis, dll. Apa itu benar?
  (TIDAK SELALU BENAR. Bagi sebagian orang, letak pusat-pusat itu dalam otak terbalik. Selain itu, bahasa misalnya, juga bukan melulu porsi otak kanan. Logika bahasa ada di otak kiri. Sebagian orang yang mengalami kerusakan otak kiri, kehilangan logika berbahasanya. Ia sering tak dapat memikirkan hubungan yang benar antara satu kalimat dengan kalimat lainnya. Sebaliknya, orang yang mengalami kerusakan otak kanan, kehilangan rasa humoris akibat sulit memahami kalimat-kalimat yang lucu!)
  
  - Kenapa di Indonesia dan Inggris setir mobil ada di kanan, tapi di Amerika di kiri?
  
  - Kenapa arah jarum jam begitu, bukan sebaliknya?
  
  Masih banyak lagi hal menarik yang dibahas dengan gaya lugas oleh McManus dalam bukunya ini. Sungguh tidak rugi saya membeli dan membaca buku yang cukup tebal ini, karena begitu banyak informasi dan pengetahuan baru yang saya dapat darinya.
• 
  Greg

  Erudite, fascinating, well-organized and clear, Right Hand Left Hand is the authoritative book on left-right asymmetry. The book can sometimes seem an eclectic tour through various intellectual disciples, but the ostensible topics of each chapter (biology, cultural anthropology, chemistry, fundamental physics, etc) are just the backdrop for the investigation of a deeper mystery. What is this deeper mystery? Well, it's spelled out in the subtitle: "The ORIGINS of Asymmetry." McManus doesn't highlight this as forcefully as he ought to, but one might say the fundamental axiom of the book is a dictum attributed to the physicist Pierre Curie: all asymmetric results must have asymmetric origins. Put another way, you can't build an asymmetric object from asymmetric subunits. But what is the definition of asymmetry? Well, an asymmetric object is non-identical to its mirror image, while a symmetric object is. However, the type of handedness of an object's subunits doesn't predict that the object will have that same handedness, but, rather, that is will have a handedness. For instance, even though the building blocks of our proteins are "left-handed", the proteins themselves are not all "left-handed"; about half are "right-handed". The books traces the asymmetry of sub-atomic particles to the asymmetry of our biological molecules to the asymmetry of our body to the asymmetry in our culture. This chain of attribution of asymmetry, from the micro to the macro, is very compelling. McManus also puts forward a theoretical genetic model of some of our boy's asymmetry, including handedness and the side of the brain that is language-dominant. I think this model is far too bold, and the rationale he provides is unconvincing. Still, spellbinding book. Read it.
• 
  Marc Oliver

  You can’t really do anything wrong with picking up any one of the Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books winners. Right Hand, Left Hand is no exception. It may even be one of the most interesting science books, I’ve read recently — and this is not only because I am a »south paw« myself. McManus presents the whole range, from entertaining trivia to deep science, in this densely packed book. He covers the biological, chemical, physical, neurological and cultural aspects of symmetry, asymmetry, chirality, and simply handedness.
• 
  marcali

  with writing both light-hearted and dense, the book ponders asymmetry from chiral to cultural. perhaps could have used some editing to tighten up the themes a bit & make the book more accessible-- but author has a lovely voice & writes compellingly on a fascinating topic.
• 
  Nicole

  More than just a book on handedness, this book deals with lateralization in the body and brain. I learned a lot. Great read.
• 
  Chris

  Very dry
• 
  Deidra Chamberlain

  Great read for the month of Left-Hander's Day on the 13th. This book was amazing. It was beautifully structured and led to lots of great musing on asymmetry and symmetry.
• 
  firevalar

  Ghjn