The Spark of LifeThe Spark of Life: Electricity in the Human Body

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

From before birth to the last breath we draw, from consciousness to sexual attraction, fighting infection to the beating of our hearts, electricity is essential to everything we think and do.

In The Spark of Life award-winning physiologist Frances Ashcroft reveals the secrets of ion channels, which produce the electrical signals in our cells. Can someone really die of fright? How do cocaine, LSD and morphine work? Why do chilli peppers taste hot? Ashcroft explains all this and more with wit and clarity. Anyone who has ever wondered about what makes us human will find this book a revelation.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Most people learn in school that nerves control our muscles, senses, and brain, but many adults would struggle to explain exactly how this occurs. Physiologist Ashcroft (Royal Society GlaxoSmithKline Research Professor, Oxford Univ.; Life at the Extremes: The Science of Survival) writes an engaging and authoritative guide to how nerves communicate across gaps called synapses, and so make life possible. Ashcroft introduces her readers to the discovery of the effects of electricity on biological organisms, including the work of Benjamin Franklin and Luigi Galvani as well as colorful quacks with fancy gadgets, epitomized by the fictional Doctor Frankenstein. She also describes the consequences of deadly nerve poisons (e.g., curare) as well as natural defects in the body's electrical system (e.g., heart arrhythmias, epilepsy, and migraines). Electricity, she assures her readers, also leads to lifesaving devices such as pacemakers and probes for deep-brain electrical stimulation that help reduce tremors and severe depression. -VERDICT Ashcroft clearly and patiently introduces complicated science while enlivening her narrative with fascinating tales of electric eels, fugu fish poisoning, and fainting goats. Serious readers will be both challenged and entertained.-Kathy Arsenault, St. Petersburg, FL (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

With style and enthusiasm, Oxford professor Ashcroft (Life at the Extremes) reveals the ubiquitous role electricity plays in our bodies. In the late 1700s, Italian scientist Luigi Galvani's experiments with frogs showed that animals produced their own electricity. His nephew Giovanni Aldini conducted public demonstrations using the corpses of recently executed criminals that gave the appearance of "re-animation" and probably sparked Mary Shelley's imagination when she created Frankenstein as well as the Victorian idea of the "mad scientist." But scientists didn't know how that electricity was produced in the body until the 1970s, when physicist Erwin Neher and physiologist Bert Sakmann measured the minuscule flow of current as potassium and sodium ions moved through tiny gates-ion channels-in a cell membrane. With this grounding, Ashcroft widens the story to explore everything from how different nerve agents, like puffer fish venom, curare, and botox, work, to how electric eels generate electricity, how defibrillators stabilize the heart's rhythms, and how our brains interpret sensory data. Ashcroft's writing is clear and accessible, offering surprising insights into the "electrical machine" we call the human body. 50 illus. Agent: Felicity Bryan, Felicity Bryan Literary Agency. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

CHOICE Review

Renowned physiologist Ashcroft (Univ. of Oxford, UK) has the rare ability to compose text in a style that is accessible to nearly all readers. This fascinating book first examines the history of the discovery of electricity and its early use as a sort of sideshow attraction. The next 12 chapters describe the passage of electrically charged atoms (ions) across cell membranes, how this allows the conduction of impulses along nerve cells and regulates the beating of the heart, and how this electrical passage (and its disruption) has a consequential impact on life itself at both relatively simple and exquisitely complex levels of biological organization. Throughout the work, Ashcroft provides anecdotes that remind readers of events in their own lives or the lives of those around them. These include a passing lightning storm that raises one's hair on end, fish kills from red tide, fainting goats, and an electrocardiogram at the cardiologist's office. Each physiological revelation is placed squarely in context. Besides the excellent text, the book contains explanatory chapter notes, a 3-page reading list, and a finely detailed 17-page index. Anyone interested in the electrical events that make life possible should add this volume to their collection. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Students of all levels and general readers. L. A. Meserve Bowling Green State University

Booklist Review

*Starred Review* Our ability to move, to perceive, to speak, and to think depends on electrical events that continuously occur in nerve and muscle cells. Or, as University of Oxford physiologist Ashcroft puts it: Humans are electrical machines. The maestros of these cellular electric orchestras are ion channels important proteins that don't get the celebrity status afforded to the likes of hemoglobin or collagen. The spark of life referred to in the book's title refers to the ubiquitous ion channels that steer sodium, potassium, chloride, and calcium ions through cell membranes. Electricity even when produced by the body is expensive. Ashcroft estimates a cost of nearly one-third the oxygen we inhale and one-half the food we consume to maintain the ion concentration gradients across cell membranes that function like molecular batteries. Physiology, cellular biology, and physics dominate the discussion, but an infusion of history, levity, and shocking tidbits about electricity enliven the reading. For example, a specialized ion channel turbocharges the tails of human sperm. The human body is a symphony of complicated chemical and electrical signals. Let Ashcroft's book serve as your program guide.--Miksanek, Tony Copyright 2010 Booklist

Kirkus Book Review

From taking a breath to running a marathon to retrieving memories, the human body is powered by electricity--but how does it work, and how can understanding its effects assist innovations in physiology? In every organism on earth, electrical activity is regulated by proteins called ion channels. Ashcroft (Physiology/Univ. of Oxford; Life at the Extremes: The Science of Survival, 2000, etc.) argues that ion channels "are truly the 'spark of life' for they govern every aspect of our behavior." The author's research led to innovative new treatments when she discovered that ion channel mutations can cause diabetes. Everything from inception (ion channels play a role in successful egg fertilization) to death (which is a cessation of electrical pulses between nerve cells) is affected by animal electricity, including all five senses. Thinking and dreaming, too, are powered by electric nerve impulses, suggesting intriguing connections between human emotions and memories and their underlying electrochemical processes. Ashcroft explores all of this with clarity and enthusiasm, citing ample research-based evidence to give readers an understanding of cutting-edge scientific research while also incorporating the vibrant history of the discovery of animal electricity. Informative and relatable real-life anecdotes tie many of these scientific concepts together and provide tantalizing hints of what new applications of electricity may be on the horizon. Brain-powered Internet, electric sight and even mind-reading may be possible. A captivating read sure to pique the interest of any science fan. ]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.