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| https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2000/kandel/biographical/ |
Eric Kendal has aimed to understand the human mind using biological concepts. He notes that the discovery of DNA's structure by James Watson and Francis Crick in 1953 has enhanced our understanding of biological aspects of perception, learning, memory, thought, consciousness, and free will. Consequently, biology has gained a status nearly on par with physics and chemistry. Molecular biology acts as the lens through which the mind's mysteries are explored. This has resulted in a new science of the mind founded on five principles: (1) the mind and brain are separable; (2) each mental function, whether creative or simple, is carried out by specialised neural circuits; (3) all these circuits are made up of the same basic signalling units—nerve cells; (4) these circuits use specific molecules to generate signals within and between nerve cells; and (5) these molecules have been conserved over thousands of years and are present in single-celled organisms like bacteria and yeasts, as well as in multicellular organisms such as worms, flies, and snails.
Eric Kendal, Austrian-American neurobiologist, was born on November 7, 1929.
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