Mr. Humble & Dr. Butcher: A Monkey’s Head, the Pope’s Neuroscientist, and the Quest to Transplant the Soul by Brandy SchillaceRead about another entry on the list.
Those interested in a bit of real-life horror need look no further than the work of neurosurgeon Dr. Robert White. As a two-time Nobel Prize nominee, Dr. White was famous for his groundbreaking research into treating head trauma and spinal cord injuries. His brain research was considered cutting-edge, life-saving work.
But Dr. White was researching during the early days of the Cold War, when nearly every scientific advance was considered a race against time. Surgeons across the globe were competing to be the first to transplant vital organs like kidneys and hearts in a rivalry reminiscent of the Space Race. On the other hand, Dr. White dreamed bigger: he wanted to transplant the human brain.
In 1970, he conducted his most infamous experiment: a nine-day, monkey-to-monkey head transplant in a Cleveland hospital lab. Mr. Humble and Dr. Butcher reveals the eerie story of Dr. White’s Frankenstein-like research, all the while grappling with the same question that tormented him: where in the body is the human soul?
--Marshal Zeringue
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