Leonardo's Brain
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listening, 196
literature, 2, 3
The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects (Vasari), 15, 82
locks and dams, 128
Lomazzo, Giovanni, 17
Louis XII, 24–25, 28
Lovelock, James, 121
Lumière, Auguste and Louis, 62
Luria, Alexander, 138
Lyell, Charles, 120, 159
M
MacCurdy, Edward, 110, 155–57
Machiavelli, Niccolò, 27–28, 153
machines, 24, 110, 128
Mademoiselle V . . . in the Costume of an Espada (1862) (Manet), 57
Maestlin, Michael, 117
Malraux, André, 9, 179
Manet, Édouard, 55–57
maps, 16, 27, 117, 152–54
Marey, Étienne-Jules, 62
Mary (mother of Jesus), 76–78
Mary Magdalene, 78–79
Masini, Tommaso, 18
mass, law of conservation of, 115
Masters, Roger D., 152–53
A Mathematician’s Apology (Hardy), 5
mathematics, 2, 5, 115–16, 118, 140
Matisse, Henri, 63
matter, 144
Matthew, Gospel of, 76–77
Maxwell, Clerk, 187
McLuhan, Marshall, 19, 176, 196
measuring devices, 128
Medici, Lorenzo de, 19–20
Medici family, 16
medicine. See science and medicine
Melzi, Francesco, 22, 111
memory, 144–45
men, brain differences, 161–63
Merezhkovsky, Dmitry, 55
metaphor, 136–37
meteorology, 116
Michelangelo, 3, 17, 26, 28, 29, 129
Michelson, Albert A., 187
Milan, 20–25, 28–29
mind. See brain
The Mind of Leonardo da Vinci (MacCurdy), 155–57
Minkowski, Hermann, 146–47
modern art, 44–45, 55–65
Mona Lisa (Leonardo da Vinci), 28, 51, 73–74
Monet, Claude, 57–58
moon, 116–17
Moore, Henry, 64
Morghen, Raphael, 71
Moro reflex, 93
Morris, Desmond, 106
Mother Nature, xvi, 88, 106–7
motion, Newton’s laws of, 113–14
movies, 62–63
Mozart, 91
music, 20, 83–84, 126–27, 138–39, 174
musical instruments, 126
Muybridge, Eadweard, 62
myelin and myelination, 93–94
N
Nabokov, Vladimir, 101
The Naked Ape (Morris), 106
natural beauty, 102
Natural Selection, xvi, 96–97, 106, 145
nature, 46–47, 107
Nazca Lines, 149–50
neurobiochemistry, 38–40
neurons, 10, 35
neuroscience, 32–41, 130
neurotransmitters, 39–40
Newton, Isaac, 113–14, 115, 119, 145–46
Nicholl, Charles, 17
Nietzsche, Friedrich, 86
Nile, 180
norepinephrine, 97
novelty, 96–98, 101, 108
Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 (1912) (Duchamp), 68–69, 72
numeracy, 140
O
October the First Is Too Late (Hoyle), 147–48
“Ode on a Grecian Urn” (Keats), 95
oil tankers, 125
Ong, Walter, 109
ophthalmology, 130
optic chiasma, 130
optics, 49, 118
Orff, Carl, 138
Ottoman Empire, 25
P
Pacioli, Luca, 24, 115–16
paddleboats, 128
painterly ambiguity, 64–65
painting
first under tutelage of Verrocchio, 16
Leonardo’s influence over Duchamp, 67–74
Leonardo’s influence over modern art, 55–65
Leonardo’s innovations, 43–53
number attributed to Leonardo, 6
perspective, 7, 47–51, 56–57
See also specific paintings
Pascal, Blaise, 133–34, 185
Pasteur, Louis, 90
Pater, Walter, 95
pathology, 131–32
Peek, Kim, 183
pendulum, 158
perspective, 7, 47–51, 56–57
Pert, Candace, 5
Petrarch, 82
pheromones, 103–4
photography, 50–51, 62
phyllotaxis, 131
physics, 113–16, 118, 187–88
Piaget, Jean, 183
Picasso, Pablo, 58–59, 98
Pieta (Michelangelo), 3
Pillsbury, Harry, 181
Pisa, 153–54
plants, 130–31
Plato, cave analogy, 143–44
poetry, 174–75
Poincaré, Henri, 91, 117
Poliziano, 17
Pollock, Jackson, 61, 62
Pontine Marshes map, 154
Pope, Alexander, 4
population, 194
porcelain, 2
portraits, 51–53
Pozzo, Cassiano dal, 82
Predis, Evangelista de, 76–78
Predis, Giovanni Ambrogio de, 76–78
Premack, David, 189
Price, Pat, 151–52
The Prince (Machiavelli), 27
Principia (Newton), 119
Principles of Geology (Lyell), 120
printing, 13–14
proto memory, 144–45
Proust, Marcel, 9
Puthoff, Hal, 150–52
Q
quantum physics, 148, 176, 186, 188, 190, 191
R
Rain Man, 183
randomness, 107
Raphael, 29, 78
Ravel, Maurice, 138
Rayleigh, Lord, 116
reading, xv, 176, 192, 196–97
relativity physics, 188
religion, 82, 197
Rembrandt, 57n
remote viewing, 149–59
The Renaissance, 2–3, 13
reproduction, 103–5
Réti, Richard, 181
Richter, Jean Paul, 156
right brain
creativity and, 85–88, 90, 91–93, 98–100
danger hormone, 97
role of, xiii, 134–39
skills housed in, 8
right-handed heterosexual males (RHHM), 161–63
Rilke, Rainer Maria, 135
robots, 128
Roemer, Olaus, 119
Romagna, 27
Roman Catholic Church, 29, 75–76, 172
Roman mythology, 90
Rosheim, Mark Elling, 128
Rubaiyat (Khayyam), 2
Rubens, Peter Paul, 71
Rubin, Edgar, 65
Rucker, Rudy, 186
Russell, John, 55
S
Sala delle Asse, 176
Salai, 22, 169
San Bernardino da Siena, 17
Santa Maria del Fiore, 2
Sardinia, 155
Sassoon, Donald, 123
Saussure, Horace-Bénédict de, 128
Savonarola, Girolamo, 25–26
The School of Athens (Raphael), 29
Schreiner, Olive, 161
Schrödinger, Erwin, 143
Schwab, Richard, 167–68
Schwartz, Lillian, 73n
science and medicine, 109–21
art comparison, 1–8
astronomy, 116–17, 120
botany, 130–31
embryology, 131
evolution, xvi, 120–21, 140–41, 185–98
fluid dynamics, 118
Gaia theory, 121
Leonardo’s contributions to, 109–13
light, 119–20
meteorology, 116
neuroscience, 32–41, 130
ophthalmology, 130
pathology, 131–32
physics, 113–16, 118, 187–88
quantum physics, 148, 176, 186, 188, 190, 191
sound, 118–19
See also anatomical dissections and drawings
scissors, 125
sculpture, 2, 3, 6, 26
Selfe, Lorna, 183
The Sense of Being Stared At (Sheldrake), 180–81
sequence, 141
Sex, Time, and Power: How Women’s Sexuality Shaped Human Evolution (Shlain), xv, 164–65
sex and sexuality, 11, 100, 102–5, 170–72
sexual orientation, 167–68. See also homosexuality
Sforza, Ludovico, 20–22, 24–25, 52, 76, 126
sfumato, 48–49, 64
Sheldrake, Rupert, 180–81
Sherrington, Charles, 86
Signora of Florence, 28
Sikorsky, Igor, 127
silicon dioxide, 194–96
Sistine Chapel, 3, 28, 29
Sixtus VI, 19
sky, reason for blue color of, 116
Slave Market with the Disappearing Bust of Voltaire (1940) (Dalí), 65
Sophocles, 190
sound, 118–19, 127
space and time relationship, 119–20, 135, 143–48, 158–59
speech, 86–87, 139–40, 196
Speke, John, 180
Sperry, Roger, 35, 37
split-brain duality
creativity and, 85–94
evolutionary advantage, xiii
hemispheric specialization, 145, 192
paradox represented by “I,” xi–xii
Pascal’s discovery of, 133–34
split-brain studies, 36–38
St. Jerome (1480) (Leonardo da Vinci), 63, 80
St. John the Baptist (Leonardo da Vinci), 57, 80–83, 84
St. Peter’s Basilica, 29
Stanford, Leland, 62
Stapp, Henry, 149
statistics, 118
Steinberg, Leo, 50, 65, 72
Steinmetz, H., 161
Strozzi, Filippo, 17
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Kuhn), 97–98
submarines, 126
sun, 116–17, 125
Swann, Ingo, 150, 152
symbolism, 80–81
Symons, Donald, 133
synapse, 40
T
tanks, 126
Targ, Russell, 151
telescope, 123–24
Ten Commandments, 46–47
theory of mind, 182
Thompson, Benjamin, 124
time
evolution of human brain to perceive, 141, 191–92
Leonardo’s depictions of multiple durations in paintings, 72
relationship with space, 119–20, 135, 143–48, 158–59
Tooby, John, xvi
Töpffer, Rodolphe, 52–53
Torricelli’s law, 114
Toscanelli, Paolo dal Pozzo, 16
travel, 106–7
Treatise on Painting (Leonardo da Vinci), 61, 64, 111
Treffert, Darold, 182
trompe l’oeil, 65
truth, 95–96
U
Uccello, Paolo, 48
universe, 186, 191
Uriel, 76–77, 78
V
vagus nerve, 39
Val d’Arno (Leonardo da Vinci), 45
Val di Chiana, 117, 153
Vasari, Giorgio, 15, 18, 48, 75, 78, 82
Vaughan, Philip, 127
Vauxcelles, Louis, 58
vegetarianism, 7, 17–18, 175
Venice, 25
vernacular, 13
Verrocchio, Andrea del, 16, 17
Virgin of the Rocks (Leonardo da Vinci), 23, 29, 64, 76–78
The Vitruvian Man (Leonardo da Vinci), 69
Vogel, Philip, 36–37
W
war and warfare, 27, 118, 125–26
water, 118, 127–28
weapons, 125–26
Wernicke, Carl, 35
Wheeler, John, 190, 191
Whitehead, Alfred North, 190
Wigner, Eugene, 148
windmill, 125
Witelson, Sandra, 163
Wolf, Fred Alan, 188
women, xv, 6–7, 161–63, 170–72
Woodworth, Robert Shaver, 85
writing, xiv–xv, 7–8, 24, 196
Y
Young, Thomas, 119–20
About the Author
Leonard Shlain was a best-selling author, inventor, and surgeon. Admired among artists, scientists, philosophers, anthropologists, and educators, Shlain authored three best-selling books: Art & Physics, Alphabet Versus the Goddess, and Sex, Time, and Power. He delivered stunning visual presentations based upon his books in venues around the world including Harvard, The New York Museum of Modern Art, CERN, Los Alamos, The Florence Academy of Art, and the European Council of Ministers. His fans include Al Gore, Norman Lear, and singer Björk. Shlain died in May 2009 at the age of seventy-one from brain cancer shortly after the completion of this book.
His legacy continues with his children who helped bring this book to publication: Kimberly Brooks, artist and founding editor of the Arts and Science Section of the Huffington Post, Jordan Shlain, doctor and founder of Healthloop.com, and Tiffany Shlain, filmmaker, founder of The Webby Awards, and director of the Sundance documentary Connected, about the ideas in Leonardo’s Brain, as well as Leonard Shlain’s final year. Visit leonardshlain.com.