What happens during a heart attack? Can someone really die of fright? What is death, anyway? How does electroshock treatment affect the brain? What is consciousness? The answers to these questions lie in the electrical signals constantly traveling through our bodies, driving our thoughts, our moveme[...]
The debut of a female Steve Jones - likeable, literate, lucid and laconic. A sprightly, lavishly illustrated book on the science of human survival. How do people survive extremes of heat, cold, depth, speed and altitude? This book explores the limits of human survival and the physiological adaptatio[...]
"A wonderful book". (Bill Bryson). "Ashcroft achieves the sort of rich simplicity most science writers can only dream about ...this book carries the eponymous spark of life". ("Sunday Telegraph"). From before birth to the last breath we draw, from consciousness to sexual attraction, fighting infecti[...]
We are all familiar with the idea that machines are powered by electricity, but perhaps not so aware that this is also true for ourselves. "The Spark of Life" is a spectacular account of the body electric, showing how, from before conception to the last breath we draw, electrical signals in our cell[...]