We Are Electric: Inside the 200-Year Hunt for Our Body's Bioelectric Code, and What the Future Holds

We Are Electric: Inside the 200-Year Hunt for Our Body's Bioelectric Code, and What the Future Holds

  • Downloads:4986
  • Type:Epub+TxT+PDF+Mobi
  • Create Date:2023-03-02 16:21:25
  • Update Date:2025-09-06
  • Status:finish
  • Author:Ms. Sally Adee
  • ISBN:B0B38SVPBZ
  • Environment:PC/Android/iPhone/iPad/Kindle

Summary

Science journalist Sally Adee breaks open the field of bioelectricity—the electric currents that run through our bodies and every living thing—its misunderstood history, and why new discoveries will lead to new ways around antibiotic resistance, cleared arteries, and new ways to combat cancer。

You may be familiar with the idea of our body's biome: the bacterial fauna that populate our gut and can so profoundly affect our health。 In We Are Electric we cross into new scientific understanding: discovering your body's electrome。

Every cell in our bodies—bones, skin, nerves, muscle—has a voltage, like a tiny battery。 It is the reason our brain can send signals to the rest of our body, how we develop in the womb, and why our body knows to heal itself from injury。 When bioelectricity goes awry, illness, deformity, and cancer can result。 But if we can control or correct this bioelectricity, the implications for our health are remarkable: an undo switch for cancer that could flip malignant cells back into healthy ones; the ability to regenerate cells, organs, even limbs; to slow aging and so much more。 The next scientific frontier might be decrypting the bioelectric code, much the way we did the genetic code。

Yet the field is still emerging from two centuries of skepticism and entanglement with medical quackery, all stemming from an 18th-century scientific war about the nature of electricity between Luigi Galvani (father of bioelectricity, famous for shocking frogs) and Alessandro Volta (inventor of the battery)。

In We Are Electric, award-winning science writer Sally Adee takes readers through the thrilling history of bioelectricity and into the future: from the Victorian medical charlatans claiming to use electricity to cure everything from paralysis to diarrhea, to the advances helped along by the giant axons of squids, and finally to the brain implants and electric drugs that await us—and the moral implications therein。 

The bioelectric revolution starts here。

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Reviews

Steve's Book Stuff

Sally Adee is a science and technology journalist with a long history of "how human minds and bodies intersect with the machines we create"。 In 2012 she wrote a feature story on bioelectricity technology that Yuval Noah Harari cites in his excellent book Homo Deus。 So she's been interested in the topic of bioelectricity for quite some time。In this new book Adee takes us through the history and science of bioelectricity and discusses what the future may hold。 It's a well-done popular science book Sally Adee is a science and technology journalist with a long history of "how human minds and bodies intersect with the machines we create"。 In 2012 she wrote a feature story on bioelectricity technology that Yuval Noah Harari cites in his excellent book Homo Deus。 So she's been interested in the topic of bioelectricity for quite some time。In this new book Adee takes us through the history and science of bioelectricity and discusses what the future may hold。 It's a well-done popular science book on a fascinating topic。 Especially fascinating is how much our understanding of the topic has advanced in the last few decades。 We may now be poised on the brink of some significant breakthroughs。What exactly is bioelectricity? It's the flow of charged particles through our bodies。 Unlike electricity outside our bodies which involve the flow of electrons, bioelectricity involves the flow of ions。 Bioelectricity does things like send signals from our nerves to our brains, allow our muscles to contract, and more。 You're probably familiar with an EEG - the line representing the heartbeat as a wave。 You may have had one yourself at your doctor's office or seen one on a medical TV show。 An EEG is actually a recording of the electrical pulses of the heart。 "Brain waves" are also measures of the electrical impulses produced in your brain。 In short, a lot of what our bodies do is accomplished through bioelectricity。 If you've been following my book reviews for a while you know I'm a big fan of history and science。 Adee does a great job with the history, showing how our understanding of bioelectricity has advanced in fits and starts。 But where she really shines is in her exploration of what may come next。 The capability to use electricity to control or even reverse cancer is just one area of current (no pun intended) research。RATING: Four Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐I read an advanced copy of the book courtesy of Netgalley and Hachette Books。 Publication Day is February 28, 2023, but you can preorder now。 。。。more

Paul

An interesting mix of science, anecdotes, and history。 It also reviews potential future uses of science。 Thanks very much for the free ARC for review!!