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Jena Osman
’s books of poems include Public Figures (Wesleyan University Press, 2012), The Network (Fence Books 2010, selected for the National Poetry Series in 2009), An Essay in Asterisks (Roof Books, 2004), and The Character (Beacon Press, winner of the 1998 Barnard New Women Poets Prize).
“Popular Science” is part of
“Common Minds,” a series of essays and conversations on the contemporary infatuation with the brain coedited by
Dawn Chan. “Popular Science” was produced by Triple Canopy as part of its
Research Work project area, which receives support from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Brown Foundation, Inc., of Houston, the Lambent Foundation Fund of Tides Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. The author wishes to thank Matt Cohen, the Walt Whitman Archive, and Duke Special Collections for Whitman’s phrenological report, and Jeremy Tessiere for talking neuroscience.