This is probably going to be my shortest book review ever! This book is simply a collection of facts, largely fun facts, about different parts of the body — the skin, hair, brain, head, the mouth, and so on. Bryson has achieved two remarkable things: (1) he has created a 400-page encyclopedia of the human body, and (2) he has made this the most fun-to-read encyclopedia ever.
Since there is nothing much to review really, here are my top 10 fun facts from the book.
(1) The human body is essentially a collection of inert elements — the same as in a pile of dirt.
(2) The Royal Society of Chemistry calculated that assembling actor Benedict Cumberbatch from his basic chemical components would cost £96,546.79.
(3) Race is merely a sliver of epidermis about a millimeter thick.
(4) If flattened out, our lungs would cover a tennis court; our blood vessels, if laid end to end, would wrap around Earth 2.5 times; and our DNA, if stretched out, would extend beyond Pluto.
(5) We grow 8 meters of hair in our lifetime.
(6) Visual inputs take one-fifth of a second to process, so the brain continuously forecasts what the world will look like a fifth of a second ahead — we spend our entire lives living in a world that doesn't quite exist yet.
(7) Volume doubles approximately every 6 decibels, meaning a 96-decibel sound isn't just slightly louder than a 90-decibel sound — it's twice as loud.
(8) Although everyone reads and pronounces the last blood group as the letter "O," Landsteiner (who discovered blood types) actually meant it to be zero, since this type showed no clumping reaction.
(9) During a single day of breathing, you likely inhale at least one molecule that was once exhaled by every person who has ever lived.
(10) While studying specimens, Henking noticed one chromosome that always remained separate from the others. He named it "X" simply because it was mysterious, not because of its shape.
Pros: Lots of interesting facts about the human body, comprehensive yet concise
Cons: It's just a collection of interesting facts about the human body!
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