Let others rhapsodize about the elegant design and astounding complexity of the human brain—the most complicated, most sophisticated entity in the known universe, as they say.

David Linden, a professor of neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University, doesn't see it that way. To him, the brain is a "cobbled-together mess."

Impressive in function, sure. But in its design the brain is "quirky, inefficient and bizarre... a weird agglomeration of ad hoc solutions that have accumulated throughout millions of years of evolutionary history," he argues in his new book, "The Accidental Mind," from Harvard University Press.

This excerpt is from an article originally published by Newsweek Magazine. Please read the full article here.

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