| Title | : | Secrets of the Human Body |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0008256551 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780008256555 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Kindle Edition |
| Number of Pages | : | 257 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2017 |
What makes tears of joy different from tears of sadness?
Why is a gut feeling so much smarter than you think?
And why is 90% of you not even human?
You may think you know the human body – heart, lungs, brain and bones – but your body is full of extraordinary mysteries that science is only just beginning to understand. This book, which accompanies a major new BBC TV programme, will change the way we think about our bodies.
Doctors are in the business of keeping secrets, but medical confidentiality isn’t just about privacy, shame or discretion. It’s about vulnerability to exploitation. In this ground-breaking new book, the effervescent van Tulleken twins bring their knowledge and charm to the page to reveal just how well our bodies keep secrets from the things that want to exploit bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites, larger predators and, crucially, other people. They uncover the remarkable stories behind the science we are not meant to know, on matters of life and death.
Leading us through these revelations are tales of everyday miracles – the human stories that bind every one of us together through the universal stages of life. From the most extreme environments on Earth to the most extreme events, Chris and Xand reveal the incredible abilities every human shares. Arranged around the three themes of learning, survival and growth, this book shows the human body like never before.
Combining cutting-edge science and technology with stunning photography that gives us a tantalising glimpse beneath our skin, the van Tullekens reveal the secrets that make very ordinary human body … extraordinary.
Secrets of the Human Body Reviews
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Chris and Xand Van Tullken are some of my biggest inspirations, from "operation ouch" to "trust me, I'm a doctor" and even to "second opinion", I absolutely adore the twins. Not only because they're the doctors I aspire to be, but because they're insanely smart, friendly and inspiring. So imagine my excitement when my local library had their book, I nearly screamed!
I've been anticipating "Secrets of the human body" since I discovered its existence and when I finally got it I immediately started reading.
I read it for Zoë's Christmas readathon, and I'm so glad I just got to sit and binge read it. I learned so much about growth, learning and survival, lots of interesting facts and got to learn some little things about my favourite twins.
I truly recommend this book if you are interested in the secrets your body has been keeping from you, or you just adore the Van Tulleken twins like me!
Love Lucy x -
3+
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Very good introduction to the mysteries of our bodies. I found the text and illustrations fascinating.
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I picked this book up on a whim (well, rather pressed play on the audiobook on a whim), and really did not expect to enjoy it as much as I did!
I found I was enthralled with the subject content and loved the topics that they covered. It focused on certain interesting aspects of the human body (growth, learning, survival etc..) and laid the foundations for you to understand some of the more complex science as well as sharing personal experiences, case studies and a look at current and previous research. It was brilliant!
I also loved the narration as well so it was very easy to listen to and enjoy and I learnt a fair bit throughout the book. There’s plenty to interest the science novice and the expert alike. Well written, some sound science included and written in a way that provoked interest and stopped the reader from getting bored. I really enjoyed it! -
This was a bit of an unusual choice for me - not something that I would naturally go for. Listened to it as an audiobook when cleaning, gardening etc, so it took a while to get through.
Its quite an interesting book to read, and from the onset of the book the authors make it clear that this isn’t just another book about the anatomy, but is actually about the body, its secrets and how it keeps going through adversity. For example, did you know that humans are the only species in the animal kingdom that have to growth spurts? And that we are unique with the development of languages in the form of a language community?
So this book basically introduces the reader to what essentially makes a human a human. A nice and different read. -
I love these two. Well presented information that I’ll have forgotten by tonight.
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The book had interesting points about science. Science is evolving every second, and these authors provided new insight on science topics like fear, cold immersion, and communication. One of the points: the body does not get into the hypothermic state until 30 minutes, but what actually kills you is the instant change of temperature from the outside into 0-degree water. Your body cannot handle that change of temperature that quickly, so your body shuts down (death).
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Fascinating reading for anyone with an interest in the workings of the human body, layman included.
As the title suggests, the focus here is on subjects that are shrouded in some mystery to medical science or are otherwise the focus of some existing cutting-edge research and as such scours the globe for those in the field that are pushing the borders.
Particular eye-openers for me included a particular (non-controversial) use of skin stem cells to grow heart cells being applied to a 'scrubbed' donor heart; current thoughts on how memories are formed in the brain, and how such a thing transitions from a short to long term state; epigenetics and the effect of environment on gene control; and the maintenance of homeostasis through to the flat out wonderment of the human immune system.
The book is written in a light conversational style, with some unavoidable use of medical terminology but hardly anywhere near textbook levels. There is also quite a bit of high-resolution imagery to accompany the words, some of which — the 'movement' of beta-actin along a neuron comes to mind — really helps push both understanding and curiosity in their needed directions.
Highly recommended. -
A good but not great book on the body. I found the book engaging and interesting. I would suggest that the science topics are either covered in more detail or less detail - the current level of detail does more harm than good. I found the content, at times, a bit waffly. The book "feels" like a van Tulleken book in that it's high on science, low on philosophical discussion. It perhaps feels more similar to a Very Short Introduction book than a more typical book on medicine (David Nott, Sacks, ...) but with perhaps more charisma. If you enjoy the bright-eyed, bushy-tailed faux-naivety (perhaps reminiscent of Bill Bryson...) of the van Tulleken twins - this book is definitely for you. If you want a book that's discoursive, this one might not be for you. If you want something actionable or with references, again this one is probably not for you either.
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A delightful exploration of the science behind the many wonders about the human body, organized around the broad theme of how evolutionary biology dictates the form and function of all aspects of the human body as it seeks to grow, learn and survive against the constant attacks by myriads of other organisms from viruses and bacteria to large predators. I like the detective investigative style of narration the authors used, posing intriguing questions like -- why human breast milk contains an abundance of complex sugar molecules that human actually lacks the enzyme to digest, how and why the chemical composition of tears of joy differs from tears of sadness, and why physical growth occurs in two major spurts (first two years, and puberty), with significant slow-down in between. It is humbling to be reminded that we still do not understand many more secrets of our human body.
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Quite an interesting read - I especially enjoyed the bit about breast milk and the evolution behind it!
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If you've watched some of their documentaries on BBC, don't read this. It's basically the same. The information was interesting when I watched them but when I read it, it wasn't.
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Wonderful, interesting, well written.
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This is an interesting book.
Obviously, there’s structure to what they wrote and listening to this brought so much wonder.
There was many topics I didn’t know about or even know the biology of common experiences. This book honestly just invited me to be curious about my body and the way it supports me on a daily basis.
