Published in 2012
340 pages
Frances Ashcroft MA PhD FRS is a British physiologist. She is Royal Society GlaxoSmithKline Research Professor in the University of Oxford. She is a fellow of Trinity College and, with Kay Davies and Peter Donnelly is a director of the Oxford Centre for Gene Function. Her research group has an international reputation for work on insulin secretion, type II diabetes and neonatal diabetes. Her work with Professor Andrew Hattersley has helped enable children born with diabetes to switch from insulin injections to tablet therapy. She is the author of the book Life at the Extremes: The Science of Survival.
What is this book about?
What happens during a heart attack? Can someone really die of fright? What is death, anyway? How does electroshock treatment affect the brain? What is consciousness? The answers to these questions lie in the electrical signals constantly traveling through our bodies, driving our thoughts, our movements, and even the beating of our hearts.
The history of how scientists discovered the role of electricity in the human body is a colorful one, filled with extraordinary personalities, fierce debates, and brilliant experiments. Moreover, present-day research on electricity and ion channels has created one of the most exciting fields in science, shedding light on conditions ranging from diabetes and allergies to cystic fibrosis, migraines, and male infertility. With inimitable wit and a clear, fresh voice, award-winning researcher Frances Ashcroft weaves together compelling real-life stories with the latest scientific findings, giving us a spectacular account of the body electric.
