One of the great challenges of popular science writing is to convey a coherent and consistent impression of scientific ideas while avoiding confusing, specialist terminology. The most useful tools for this task are metaphor and pictures. The Dana Press, publisher for the Charles A Dana Foundation, has as its mandate “the provision of information about the personal and public benefits of brain research”. With The bard on the brain, they have chosen to use the voice of William Shakespeare, the master craftsman of metaphor, to introduce the areas of human cognition that have attracted the most attention in recent functional imaging research. The logic behind this approach is that, as the authors explain, “Shakespeare’s genius derives from his keen insight into the human mind” and that, in functional imaging, “brain scientists finally have the means to address questions that …