Modern Discoveries in Neuroscience... And What They Reveal About You (Collection)

8. The time machine

Not all animals are flawless. Toads are clumsy. They flop around the grass like offensive linemen playing hopscotch. When mowing the lawn in Iowa for the first time in 10 years, the smells of grass and pollen pound my brain like a 10-ton weight. A few toads scramble frantically away from the mower, desperately avoiding the rumbling vibrations, like soldiers in a war movie flailing away from a tank. The way they trip and fall reminds me of another experience I had with clumsiness—walking through a gully between two bluffs by a creek in the crisp air the day after Thanksgiving, a sand crane floated through the air. He noticed me out of the corner of his eye, ahead of his quiet flopping wings. The gully was silent; all the clamoring ...