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Pop science likes to dub dopamine \u201cthe reward chemical\u201d and serotonin \u201cthe happiness chemical\u201d. God only knows what norepinephrine is, but I\u2019m sure it\u2019s cutesy.

In real life, all of this is much more complicated. Dopamine\xa0might be\xa0\u201cthe surprisal in a hierarchical predictive model chemical\u201d, but even that can\u2019t be more than a gross oversimplification. As for serotonin, people have studied it for seventy years and the best they can come up with is \u201cuh, something to do with stress\u201d.

Serotonin and brain function: a tale of two receptors\xa0by Robin Carhart-Harris and David Nutt tries to cut through the mystery. Both authors are suitably important to attempt such an undertaking. Carhart-Harris is a neuropsychopharmacologist and one of the top psychedelic researchers in the world. Nutt was previously the British drug czar but missed the memo saying drug czars were actually supposed to be\xa0against\xa0drugs; after using his position to tell everyone drugs were pretty great, he was summarily fired. Now he\u2019s another neuropsychopharmacology professor, though with cool side projects like\xa0inventing magical side-effect-free alcohol. These are good people.