If You're Curious About These Questions...
You should listen to this audiobook
- Did you know how surprisingly little it would actually cost to buy the raw chemical elements needed to build a human body from scratch?
- Have you ever wondered about the trillions of tiny, automated miracles happening inside you every second that keep you alive without you ever noticing?
- Are you curious about the hidden 'civilization' of microbes living on your skin and in your gut that exerts more control over your health than you might think?
Listen to The Body — Free Audiobook
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Key Takeaways from The Body
- Discover why the raw elements of a human body cost over $150,000 and how millions of years of evolutionary trials have shaped your true worth and resilience.
- Understand how your skin functions as a dynamic ecosystem, protecting you with a shedding layer of dead cells while hosting trillions of helpful microbes.
- Explore the complex architecture of your three-pound brain, from the emotion-processing amygdala to the multitasking hypothalamus that manages hunger, sleep, and aging.
- Learn about the unmatched power of your heart, which circulates 70 gallons of blood per hour and relies exclusively on coronary arteries rather than its internal chambers for nourishment.
- Find out how your internal chemistry sustains your well-being, from the life-saving production of insulin to the friendly gut microbes that tirelessly defend against harmful bacteria.
Learning Tools
Reinforce what you learned from The Body
Mind Map
The Body
Composition & Origins
Building Blocks
Evolutionary Marvel
The Microbiome
Scale & Function
Composition
Antibiotics
Brain & Nervous System
Efficiency
Anatomy
Facial Expressions
Heart & Blood
The Heart
Blood Components
Medical Progress
Hormones
Chemical Messengers
Crucial Functions
Skeleton & Bipedalism
Bones
Human Hands
Walking Upright
Diet & Digestion
Evolution of Eating
Modern Diet Issues
The Digestive Process
Sleep & Rhythms
Purpose of Sleep
Internal Clocks
Gender & Reproduction
Medical Bias
Childbirth
Disease & Mortality
Shifting Threats
Cancer & Pain
Aging & Death
Quiz — Test Your Understanding
Question 1 of 11
According to the text, what is the fundamental realization scientists have when calculating the cost and materials needed to build a human body from scratch?
The Body — Full Chapter Overview
Chapter 1: Recommendation
Chapter 2: The human body is truly a miraculous thing.
Chapter 3: We are not alone: trillions of microbes live in us and keep us alive.
Chapter 4: Your head houses one of the universe’s most extraordinary things: your brain.
Chapter 5: Our knowledge of the heart and blood has grown, but still has far to go.
Chapter 6: Hormones are vital yet enigmatic chemicals made inside the body.
Chapter 7: Humans evolved a uniquely flexible structure that lets us walk upright.
Chapter 8: You really are what you eat – including every bit of that sugar.
Chapter 9: Our body keeps track of time so it knows when we should sleep.
Chapter 10: Medical research on women lags behind, and childbirth research is still young.
Chapter 11: We’re beating infectious disease – but other illnesses will take us instead.
Chapter 12: We’ve grown better at postponing death, yet it awaits us all.
The Body Summary & Overview
The Body: A Guide for Occupants (2019) is an entertaining and fact-filled account of how we all work. With his trademark wit, Bill Bryson explains the astonishing ways in which our bodies are put together, and what goes on inside them.
Who Should Listen to The Body?
- Popular science fans
- Biology and medicine enthusiasts
- Anyone keen to learn more about their own body
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