In 1771, Italian physician Luigi Galvani discovered that dead frogs will kick their legs when shocked; shortly after, his nephew Giovanni Aldini electrocuted fresh corpses to achieve a similar effect. Their discoveries marked the beginning of a new scientific field, one dedicated to study of the electrical energy produced by living tissues or organisms. In The Spark of Life, Oxford physiology professor Frances Ashcroft reveals how our bodies produce, conduct, and transmit electricity -- and what effects this has on our health and survival. From the ion channels that play a role in conception to the cessation of pulses between nerve endings that leads to death, electricity truly governs every aspect of our lives. Nature and Science newsletter http://www.nextreads.com/Display2.aspx?SID=5acc8fc1-4e91-4ebe-906d-f8fc5e82a8e0&N=581853

Though I love science writing, I found this book very disappointing. To begin with, the type was improperly set, creating highly distracting spaces within words, like this: spar k of li fe. Beyond that, the explanations of intracellular mechanisms remained bewildering and opaque. I am trained in the sciences, and expect to be able to understand anything presented in such a work intended for the general public. Not in this book!