phantom pains. One of his patients was a man with insistent pain in his arm, an arm that was in fact removed many years prior. Ramachandran proceeded to test out a treatment of his own creation. He made the man place his arms into a box, the one arm that was still attached surrounded by mirrors. The box and the mirror together provided the illusion that his arm was still intact. Then, he made the man move his hands around as if he still had both. It is after this ritual of moving his hands about that the man exclaims that he feels his pain subsiding, that he feels his phantom fist unclench for the first time in many years. Thus concludes the chapter about the brain and its motor, which essentially is responsible for every part working correctly. Chapter 6: The Laughing Disease The Laughing Disease, later referred to as kuru, originated in Papua, New Guinea in the tribe of the Fore (For-ay) people. It was commonplace in the tribe to consume the body when someone had passed, believing that consuming the body would speed its journey to the afterlife. Cannibalism was an important cultural norm to the Fore, though it was what ultimately spread kuru. The slow rise of this disease caught the attention of one D. Carleton Gajdusek, a doctor who specialized in pediatrics with a strange affinity for microbes and their spread. His interest piqued (he loved to travel around the world in search of malady), he traveled to New Guinea to see what the fuss was about and try to investigate it for himself. While he was there, he collected hundreds of gallons of samples of blood and urine and sweat, trying to find how it spread (and it spread. Rapidly, in fact. It was the question of many biologists and those in the medical field alike). He bribed families for the brains of their deceased, the ones that fell victim to kuru and were going to be eaten by their relatives and used the brains he acquired to conduct autopsies as fast as possible (which were often difficult as refrigeration was often below-average and unavailable). It is here that Kean brings up the cerebellum, the center in the brain that controls finer movements, controls the timing of movement. Very important. It was probable that a malfunction in this area of the brain was what