Ever wondered what it’s like to be hit by lightning or to lose your sense of smell? Heard about the woman saved by bee stings — or the window cleaner who survived a 400ft fall?

Originally written for the mosaicscience.com site run by the Wellcome charity, these 16 stories by leading science writers explore the mysteries of the human body. Learn about everything from diets to allergies, hair colour to rare blood, and from allergies to remote surgery.

Contents

What’s it like to be struck by lightning? Why do we colour hair? The man with the golden blood Why dieters can’t rely on calories 3D printers can now make body parts How to fall from a skyscraper and live to tell the tale The quest to explain miscarriages Seeking a ‘cure’ for male baldness How bee stings saved a woman’s life The global trend for ‘kangaroo’ babies What it means to lose your sense of smell The doctor aiming to end eye pain Could allergies be a defence against noxious chemicals? Why business is going slow on the male pill How virtual reality headsets aid remote surgery Shhh! What exactly is the menopause?

Review

It's a good sign when you pick up a book intending to read one chapter and end up reading three. It's very moreish. This is because it's made up of short, self-contained articles, originally published on a website. Often an edited collection of articles by different authors suggests a boring read, but here the articles are good pieces of journalism with plenty to interest the reader.
The topics are all vaguely human body related, but thankfully not all medical (not my favourite subject) — so, for example, as well as stories of a person cured of Lyme disease by bee stings or a piece on miscarriages we get topics like the effects on the body of being struck by lightning or falling from a high place. Even some more explicitly health-related matters, such as the impact of losing your sense of smell, were engaging enough to get me past my medical squeamishness.

— Brian Clegg, science writer

Various Writers

Books