The Spark of Life
Electricity in the Human Body
Allen Lane
Hardback
: 28 Jun 2012
£20.00
Synopsis
In the beginning, there was the first mysterious leap of energy in the primordial pools...
Going back hundreds of millions of years to life's humble origins, The Spark of Life is a detective story that reveals the fundamental role of electricity in animating our living world and reveals the secrets of the most complex organism in the known universe - the human body.
In this enthralling, accessible book, physiologist Frances Ashcroft traces the development of our changing ideas about the 'animal electricity' within all of us, travelling from Ancient Greece to the forefront of modern scientific research. She uncovers the largely unknown scientists who changed our view of the world easily as much as their more well-known counterparts Thomas Edison, Benjamin Franklin and Alessandro Volta. She also explains how the electrical activity of our bodies is generated, and tells the dramatic, fascinating and sometimes tragic stories of what happens when things go wrong. What occurs during a heart attack? Can someone really die of fright? How do we fall asleep, or lose consciousness altogether? Just what is the link between our brain and mind?
Whether listening to a Mozart concerto or predicting the trajectory of a tennis ball, our very consciousness is nothing but electrical signals. The Spark of Life is the magical story of this often overlooked hidden power that pulsates beneath the whole of living creation.
» Read the opening pages of The Spark of Life by downloading the Penguin Taster here
Product details
Format :
Hardback
ISBN: 9781846143014
Size : 153 x 234mm
Pages : 352
Published : 28 Jun 2012
Publisher : Allen Lane
The Spark of Life
Electricity in the Human Body
£20.00
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