Dick Swaab, brain researcher, founder of the Brain Bank and author of the bestseller ‘We are our brain’, turns 80 this month. But that does not mean he will stop working. After a lifetime of groundbreaking research, he is still curious about how our brain works. “There are two major problems for coming generations: the brain and the universe. They are comparable in complexity.”
Swaab talks to Pieter van der Wielen about how he has seen knowledge about the brain change radically in recent decades. And he often played an important role in this, such as when he was the first scientist to find structures in the brains of homosexual men that were different from those of heterosexual men. He was not always appreciated for that. “You realize that when you do brain research, it is scary for some people.”
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- Presentation:
- Pieter van der Wielen
- Editorial:
- Maartje Willems
- Mixing:
- Audio chief
- Production:
- Rhea Stroink
- Post-production:
- Berit Kramer
- Music:
- Rufus van Baardwijk
- Photo:
- Merlin Doomernik