. >> well, next on booktv we want to introduce you to sam kean whose most

. >> well, next on booktv we want to introduce you to sam kean whose most recent book is called "the tale of the dueling neurosurgeons." who are they? >> guest: so the dueling neurosurgeons are a.m. bros parre and andreas -- [inaudible] they were neurosurgeons in the 1500s in europe, and we usually don't think about neurosurgery going on that far back, but they were doing some very important work especially on a king of france who was kind of this big, macho king and ended up getting his face clobbered in a jousting accident one day. so they brought the best neurosurgeons in europe in to try the save him. and it was really a landmark case in the history of neuroscience where they learned a lot of different things about how the brain works. and that's kind of the premise of the book, is using these famous case studies, famous injuries especially to teach us about what every part of the brain does. >> host: well, what did we learn in the 15th century from these two neurosurgeons? >> guest: actually, it was very interesting. they diagnosed him with something which was controversial at t