The distinguished neurologist Oliver Sacks died last week at the age of 82. For decades, he captivated readers and audiences all over the world with his accounts of the way the human mind works. He was both a scientist and a humanist. In his many books, such as Awakenings and The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat , Oliver Sacks applied his genius to the vagaries of human experience.

We have an excerpt from a conversation he had with Michael in December, 2001. The occasion was the publication of a memoir of his childhood in London, during and just after World War ll. The book is called Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood, after one of his uncles who had a light bulb factory.