Bodyology

Top science writers report for Mosaic Science, a project founded by the health charity Wellcome to promote high-quality science writing.Mosaic has published dozens of stories exploring the science people care about. Canbury Press has curated these long-form stories into two books, Bodyology: The Curious Science of Our Bodies (ISBN  9780995497863) and Brainology: The Curious Science of Our Minds  (ISBN 9781912454006).The leading authors who contributed to Brainology are: John Walsh, Sam Wong, Geoff Watts, Linda Geddes, Olivia Solon, Jo Marchant, Andrea Volpe, Srinath Perur, Will Storr, Lucy Maddox, Shayla Love, Gaia Vince, Jo Marchant, John Osborne, Alex O'Brien, Emma Young

• INTRODUCTION. All of the stories in this book were first published by Mosaic (mosaicscience.com), created by Wellcome, a global charitable foundation dedicated to improving human health. They are republished here under a Creative Commons licence. Some edits have been made, including to the headlines1. WHAT'S IT LIKE TO BE STRUCK BY LIGHTNING? By piecing together bystander reports, the singed clothing and the burnt skin can survivors start to construct their own picture of the possible trajectory of an electrical current that can approach 200 million volts and travel at a third of the speed of light2. WHY AND HOW WE COLOUR HAIR. Humans have dyed for thousands of years, experimenting with ever-changing, often vicious, formulas to achieve a new hair colour. Along with ammonia, hair dye formulas contain hydrogen peroxide, a bleaching agent. Peroxide reacts with the melanin, removing natural colour3. THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN BLOOD. On the trail of rare blood, who gives it and why? Some blood can be as rare as 1 in 100 million. The majority of the 342 blood group antigens belong to one of 35 blood group systems. Finding a donor and getting rare blood to a patient in crisis can be a desperate race4. WHY DIETERS CAN'T RELY ON CALORIES. More than two-thirds of American adults are overweight or obese. One in three are attempting to lose weight by dieting. Yet there is ample evidence that diets rarely lead to sustained weight loss. Because a calorie isn’t just a calorie – and that's the problem5. COULD 3D PRINTERS MAKE BODY PARTS? Stories of lives devastated by conflict or disease are all too common across low-income countries. Lack of an arm or leg can be tough anywhere, but for people in poorer parts of the planet, with so much less support and infrastructure, it is especially challenging6. HOW TO FALL 400FT AND LIVE TO TELL THE TALE. Alcides Moreno was a window washer in New York City when he fell from the 47-storey Solow Tower. Falls are the second leading cause of death by injury in the US, after car accidents. Yet we are more fearful of terror attacks, shark bites and Ebola outbreaks7. MISCARRIAGE: THE RACE TO PROTECT PREGNANCIES. The unspecified genetic abnormalities that are said to underlie most miscarriages have various possible causes. The risk of random genetic faults in the fetus seems to increase with the age of the mother. There are several other potential causes8. CAN MEDITATION OUTWIT AGEING? Whereas Western biomedicine has traditionally shunned the study of personal emotions, a team led by a Nobel Prize-winning biochemist at the University of California, San Francisco, is engaged in serious studies hinting that meditation might slow ageing and lengthen life9. SEEKING A 'CURE' FOR MALE BALDNESS. Androgenetic alopecia is the medical term for inherited hair loss, and while it affects both men and women, it’s men whose anxieties tend to be targeted by the hair loss industry. It’s estimated to be worth at least $1.5 billion a year worldwide10. HOW BEE STINGS SAVED A WOMAN'S LIFE. ‘I moved to California to die.’ Ellie Lobel was 27 when she was bitten by a tick and contracted Lyme disease. She had 15 years of pain and disability. And she was not yet 45 when she decided to give up fighting for survival. A swarm of Africanised bees saved her11. THE GLOBAL TREND FOR 'KANGAROO' BABIES. Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) is the brainchild of Colombian paediatrician Edgar Rey, who introduced it to the Instituto Materno Infantil in 1978. It was an idea born out of desperation. Death rates and infection levels dropped immediately12. WHAT IT'S LIKE TO LOSE YOUR SENSE OF SMELL. People who can no longer smell – following an accident or illness – report a strong sense of loss, with impacts on their lives they could never have imagined. Smell is not ranked highly among our senses – until it's gone (as many with Covid have found)13. THE DOCTOR AIMING TO END SEVERE EYE PAIN. At 82, Boston ophthalmologist Perry Rosenthal has become the nerve centre of a small but growing network of researchers and clinicians seeking out new explanations for the often jarring disconnect between brutal symptoms and a lack of clear signs14. ALLERGIES — A DEFENCE AGAINST NOXIOUS CHEMICALS? Allergens include latex, gold, pollen, penicillin, insect venom, peanuts, papayas, jellyfish stings, perfume, eggs, house mites, pecans, salmon, beef and nickel. Why? At Yale School of Medicine, Ruslan Medzhitov has a theory15. WHY BIG PHARMA MAY BE GOING SLOW ON THE MALE PILL. Researchers are as confident as they can be that they’re close to overcoming the scientific barriers. Now, the multimillion-dollar question seems to be: Who is actually going to make the male pill happen?16. HOW VIRTUAL REALITY IS AIDING REMOTE SURGERY. A 54-year-old surgeon at Panamerican University in Mexico City, he’s on a mission to bring virtual reality into the operating room, using the high-tech distraction technique to carry out surgeries normally requiring powerful painkillers and sedatives17. SHHH! BUT WHAT EXACTLY IS THE MENOPAUSE? A few things science doesn’t know about the menopause: what it’s for, how it works and how best to treat it. After the age of 40, the ovaries begin to secrete less oestrogen, and... this causes 'the body to behave differently'. One woman investigatedACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. The stories in this book were originally published by Wellcome on mosaicscience.com. Canbury Press thanks: Charlotte Huff, Chrissie Giles, Rob Reddick, Francine Almash, Charlie Hall, Rebecca Guenard, Peta Bell, Kirsty Strawbridge, Penny Bailey, Madeleine Penny, Lowri Daniels plus

'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.'