Michael Hutchinson Knihy

For professional cyclists, going faster and winning are, of course, closely related. Yet surprisingly, for many, a desire to go faster is much more important than a desire to win. Someone who wants to go faster will work at the details and take small steps rather than focusing on winning. Winning just happens when you do everything right - it's the doing everything right that's hard. And that's what fascinates and obsesses Michael Hutchinson. With his usual deadpan delivery and an awareness that it's all mildly preposterous, Hutchinson looks at the things that make you faster - training, nutrition, the right psychology - and explains how they work, and how what we know about them changes all the time. He looks at the things that make you slower, and why, and how attempts to avoid them can result in serious athletes gradually painting themselves into the most peculiar life-style corners. Faster is a book about why cyclists do what they do, about what the riders, their coaches and the boffins get up to behind the scenes, and about why the whole idea of going faster is such an appealing, universal instinct for all of us.

Scientists have learned more about the brain in the last decade than in all of previous history, and the implications of the latest research are clear: The human brain is far more powerful, and has the potential for immensely greater growth and transformation, than was ever before imagined. These discoveries may constitute the most significant development in learning since the invention of writing. Michael Hutchison captures all the drama, excitement, and adventure as we finally begin to comprehend the most mysterious and complex structure in the universe, the source of human culture, a still untapped reservoir of power and skills. He looks at the recently developed machines and devices that may soon allow us to increase brain size and intelligence; regenerate brain cells; trigger specific brain states such as euphoria, long- and short-term memory, sexual excitement, and creativity; and control the brain's electrical activity in order to alter such "involuntary" mechanisms as blood pressure, heart rate, and the secretion of hormones. Megabrain is a lucid and lively account of where the pioneers in brain research are headed — and where they are taking us.

A bumpy ride through two centuries of cycling.