In October 1949, the Nobel Committee in Stockholm awarded the Prize in Physiology or Medicine to António...
Oscar Forrester
Very Big Brain is written by Oscar Forrester, a researcher and writer with a long-standing fascination with how the brain works. Oscar spent several years working in hospital IT, including on infection control systems, and grew up in a household shaped by medicine — his father was a physician and his mother a registered nurse. He is not a clinician himself, and nothing on this site should be taken as medical advice. What he brings instead is a rigorous, source-first approach to research, honed over two decades of writing (he’s authored numerous published books, primarily on software development), and a genuine curiosity about the science of cognition. Mr. Forrester strives to present complex topics in a clear and engaging manner, making it easy for you to understand and apply the knowledge to your daily life.
In the summer of 1870, two Prussian military physicians named Gustav Fritsch and Eduard Hitzig sat at...
For most of recorded history, the brain was understood as a continuous, undifferentiated tissue — something more...
In 1884, a 28-year-old Viennese neurologist named Sigmund Freud published a paper titled “Über Coca” — On...
World War II was, among many other things, the largest pharmacological experiment in human history. By the...
In the first half of the 19th century, having your head read by a phrenologist was something...
Androgens, often primarily associated with male sexual characteristics and reproductive functions, play a crucial role in the...
Last Updated: June 2026 The human brain accounts for roughly 2% of total body weight yet consumes...
Last Updated: June 2026 Mental health and cognitive function are not parallel tracks that occasionally intersect. They...
There is a moment in every first meeting when, without being asked to and without quite intending...