The Secret Body: How the New Science of the Human Body Is Changing the Way We Live Paperback – 7 July 2022

The next technological revolution will not be digital; it will be biological. Professor Davis is not only an expert scientist, but a playfully articulate writer who guides us masterfully through the most profound and important era of science.I recommend this book to all life sciences students like myself. It is a vital reminder that the siloed research into different body systems links together in a tapestry more complex than we can conceive. Professor Davis reminds us that we must not lose sight of these connections and that there is still so much to be discovered.

There is a certain irony that, a year and a half into the global pandemic when I finally fell foul of the coronavirus and had to self-isolate, top of my reading list was this book with the sub-title “How the new science of the human body is changing the way we live”. Although the author is professor of immunology at the University of Manchester, I had thought this was a popular science book, but it’s hard going for someone (like me) who has never had any lesson in biology and the 538 endnotes are very much for medical readers.What any reader cannot fail to take away, however, is the conclusion that “we are at the cusp of a revolutionary time in virtually every aspect of human biology”. It is striking how so many of the discoveries described came from collaboration between scientists from different disciplines and how frequently the spark was a chance conversation at a conference (you don’t get this from virtual events).The six chapters look respectively at the individual cell, the embryo, the body’s organs and systems, the brain, the microbiome, and the genome. Above all, what we learn that everything is immeasurably more complicated that was once thought.Take the brain. A human brain is made up of 86 billion neurons. Those neurons are connected by around 100 trillion synapses, each allowing messages to move from one cell to another. Neurons are not even the most common type of brain cell which are in fact glial cells which do all sorts of things including forming and adapting neural connections. There are around 100 billion glial cells.I find these figures mind-boggling. Yet there are scientists trying to create a wiring map for the brain that shows which neurons are connected to which other neurons. A new word has been made up for such a concept – one of many new words to me in this fascinating book: the connectome. Remember where you heard it first.

I absolutely loved reading this book. It is suitable for anyone and very easy to understand no matter how much scientific knowledge you have. It's so fascinating and has made me excited for the future of research. I highly recommend the book to anyone even slightly interested in biology :)

Reveals a fascinating insight into the complexities of how we work. Very easy to follow the flow of the stories and concepts are explained superbly for most people to understand. Opens up ones world into the breadth of complexity occurring within oneself,a highly recommended read!

In this book Dan Davis tells six irresistible stories of people in science. We can all relate to the human experiences in these stories plus we enjoy the intellectual stimulation of understanding complex scientific problems that Dan simplifies beautifully for us. From the fantastic football analogy in the beginning to the personal reasons why he had to write this book at the end, you are in for a treat that will boost your trust, hope and excitement for a new revolution in science and how we are cracking the mysteries of our bodies. Thanks Dan!

As a former secondary school teacher of Biology and Head of Science, this is an inspirational book that should be read by all students looking to gain an insight into how recent developments in our understanding of Human Biology will impact on all our lives in the future. Professor Daniel Davis’s book is engaging and thought provoking and he has managed to make complex subjects accessible to all.

I thought the book was very insightful, thought provoking and a really fascinating read. What I really like most is the way that it is written and accesible to all. I fully recommend this!

The book's prose is somewhat lackluster and failed to captivate me. It might appeal to a casual reader who isn't particularly drawn to vibrant and tantalizing writing

This book has excellent insights into the human body.

I very much enjoyed reading this book. It takes a look at recent breakthroughs in biology and technology. Along the way, one learns a lot about our current understanding of how things in the body work and how we are just scratching the surface of that understanding.Very readable.