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TWO Australian neuroscientists have released a new edition of the second most
cited book in science, The Rat Brain in Stereotaxic Coordinates. “It’s
the standard street directory to the brain,” says Charles Watson, dean of
health and behavioural sciences at the University of Wollongong, who with
George Paxinos, professor of psychology at the University of New South Wales
have compiled the blockbuster. Because the rat brain is so similar to its human
counterpart, most basic neurological research is carried out on rats. The book
is cited about 2000 times each year in scientific publications according to the
Science Citation Index. Only a bestselling guide to molecular cloning
techniques and about 10 scientific papers do better. “It’s an accident of fate,”
says Watson. “Every neuroscience laboratory has to have one, and they have to
keep on using it to give references as to where they are working in the brain.”
The book, which was first produced in 1982, provides detailed matched maps and
photographs of serial stained sections through the rat brain in three
dimensions. The new 3rd edition, however, is a departure in two ways—it is
smaller and cheaper, providing updated serial sections only in one dimension
(the other dimensions are available in earlier editions), and there is a CD-ROM
to accompany it. The CD-ROM allows researchers to print out drawings of
particular sections or features of the brain, and then edit them, putting on
their own labels. The book is published by Academic Press and is available
through university bookshops for A$89.95 (CD-ROM included). The first
printing of the new edition has already sold out in the US.