He is particularly keen to give recognition to researchers whose discoveries have improved the human condition but who have gone unfairly unrecognised.Īt times Bryson’s language is philosophically floppy. Bryson often diverts into discussion of the lives of scientists involved in various breakthroughs. No one knows why we yawn.īut what we do know is wonderful, and how we found it out equally so. Only 2 per cent of our DNA appears to do anything practical, and fully 10 per cent seems to be gibberish. “Your body is a universe of mystery,” says Bryson. Yet much time is spent telling us what we know we don’t know. Nevertheless, there are omissions, such as an absence of discussion of the body’s innumerable on-board parasites and the role they play, which is often beneficial. This is why Bryson earns the big bucks.Īt 450 pages, this is a healthily sized volume that is occasionally a little repetitious, and might have benefited from a visit to the surgeon for a little trim. Your message will finally get through – if not in detail then at least in substance.ĭiscussing respiration, for instance, Bryson writes that what we breathe in is 80 per cent nitrogen, which “goes into your lungs and straight back out again, like an absent-minded shopper who has wandered into the wrong store”. The students who filled your labs but paid only drowsy attention to long explanations of meiosis and mitosis are likely now lining up for Bill Bryson’s latest bound-to-be bestseller, The Body: A Guide for Occupants.

The body by bryson