An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales is a 1995 book by neurologist Oliver Sacks consisting of seven medical case histories of individuals with neurological conditions such as autism and Tourette syndrome. An Anthropologist on Mars follows up on many of the themes Sacks explored in his earlier book, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, but here the essays are significantly longer and Sacks has more of an opportunity to discuss each subject with more depth and to explore historical case studies of patients with similar symptoms. In addition, Sacks studies his patients outside the hospital, often traveling considerable distances to interact with his subjects in their own environments. Sacks concludes that "[d]efects, disorders, [and] diseases... can play a paradoxical role, by bringing out latent powers, developments, evolutions, forms of life that might never be seen, or even be imaginable, in their absence" (Page xvi). Neurology is the branch of medicine that deals with the nervous system and disorders affecting it. ... Oliver Sacks Oliver Wolf Sacks (born July 9, 1933, London) is a neurologist who has written popular books about his patients. ... It has been suggested that Autism mercury be merged into this article or section. ... Tourette syndrome (also called Tourettes syndrome, Tourettes disorder, Gilles de la Tourette syndrome, GTS or TS) is an inherited neurological disorder with onset in childhood, characterized by the presence of multiple motor tics and at least one phonic tic, which characteristically wax and wane. ... The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat is a book by Oliver Sacks describing the case studies of some of Dr. Sackss patients. ...

The seven essays are:

• The Case of the Colorblind Painter discusses an accomplished artist who is suddenly struck by cerebral achromatopsia or the inability to perceive color due to brain damage.
• The Last Hippie describes the case of a man suffering from the effects of a massive brain tumor, which include anterograde amnesia which prevents him from remembering anything that has happened since the late 1960's.
• A Surgeon's Life describes Sacks' interactions with a surgeon and amateur pilot with Tourette syndrome. The surgeon is often beset by tics, but these tics vanish when he is operating.
• To See and Not to See is the tale of a man who was blind from early childhood, but was able to recover some of his sight after surgery. This is one of an extremely small number of cases where an individual regained sight lost at such a young age, and as with many of the other cases, the patient found the experience to be deeply disturbing.
• The Landscape of His Dreams discusses Sacks' interactions with Franco Magnani, an artist obsessed with his home village of Pontito in Tuscany. Although Magnani has not seen his village in many years, he has constructed a detailed, highly-accurate, three-demensional model of Pontito in his head.
• Prodigies describes Sacks' relationship with Stephen Wiltshire, a young autistic savant described by Hugh Casson as "possibly the best child artist in Britain"
• An Anthropologist on Mars describes Sacks' meeting with Temple Grandin, an autistic woman who is a world-renowned designer of humane livestock facilities and a professor at Colorado State University. The title of this essay comes from a phrase Grandin uses to describe how she often feels in social interactions.

The 1999 film At First Sight is based on the fourth essay in this book, To See and Not to See. A brain tumor is any intracranial mass created by an abnormal and uncontrolled growth of cells either normally found in the brain itself: neurons, glial cells (astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, ependymal cells), lymphatic tissue, blood vessels), in the cranial nerves (myelin producing Schwann cells), in the brain envelopes (meninges), skull, pituitary and... Anterograde amnesia is a form of amnesia, or memory loss, where new events are not transferred to long-term memory. ... Surgeon may refer to: a practitioner of surgery the moniker of British electronic music producer and DJ, Anthony Child; see Surgeon (musician) This is a disambiguation page—a list of articles associated with the same title. ... Look up pilot in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Tourette syndrome (also called Tourettes syndrome, Tourettes disorder, Gilles de la Tourette syndrome, GTS or TS) is an inherited neurological disorder with onset in childhood, characterized by the presence of multiple motor tics and at least one phonic tic, which characteristically wax and wane. ... A tic is a repeated, impulsive action, almost reflexive in nature, which the actor feels powerless to control or avoid. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Tuscany (Italian Toscana) is a region in central Italy, bordering on Latium to the south, Umbria and Marche to the east, Emilia-Romagna and Liguria to the north, and the Tyrrhenian Sea to the west. ... Stephen Wiltshire MBE, (born 1974) is an accomplished architectural artist who has been diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder. ... The factual accuracy of this article is disputed. ... Sir Hugh Maxwell Casson (23 May 1910 – 15 August 1999) was a British architect, interior designer, artist, and influential writer and broadcaster on 20th century design. ... Temple Grandin, one of the more successful adults with autism. ... Sheep are commonly bred as livestock. ... Colorado State University Colorado State University is a public land grant institution of higher learning located in Fort Collins, Colorado in the United States. ... This is a list of film-related events in 1999. ... At First Sight is a 1999 American film. ...

Reviews

• Kakutani, Michiko. "Book of the Times; Finding the Advantages in Some Mind Disorders" Review of An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales by Oliver Sacks. New York Times Book Review, February 14, 1995

This science-book-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.