The Secret Body
Play sample
  • Published: 5 November 2021
  • ISBN: 9781847925695
  • Imprint: Bodley Head
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 224
  • RRP: $45.00

The Secret Body

How the New Science of the Human Body Is Changing the Way We Live

Formats & editions
Tr. Paperback
2 Jul 2021
EBook
1 Jul 2021
Audiobook
1 Jul 2021
Paperback
7 Aug 2022
Hardback
5 Nov 2021
Buy from…
Amazon Booktopia Dymocks QBD Readings Find local retailers Find local retailers Abbeys Angus & Robertson Boomerang Collins Fishpond Gleebooks Harry Hartog Kinokuniya Robinsons The Nile Your Bookstore

One of our most lauded scientist-writers shows how scientific breakthroughs are revealing astonishing new capabilities and possibilities for the human body

'A perfect blend of cutting-edge science and compelling storytelling. Daniel Davis has a rare knack for making complex science comprehensible and thrilling' BILL BRYSON

Welcome to a revolution in the science of you.

Recent and dramatic breakthroughs in our understanding of the body will profoundly change the experience of being human in the coming century. Already they are opening up boundary-breaking possibilities for intervention at every level, from our brains and genes to our microbiomes and immune systems. These will confer unprecedented powers over health, childhood development, our cognitive and physical abilities, and affect every aspect of how we live our lives and think about ourselves. As the secrets of our bodies are revealed, we all will face previously unthinkable choices with consequences we have yet to understand.

Imagine knowing years in advance the precise likelihood of developing specific cancers, thanks to a bespoke understanding of every cell in your body; following a diet and health regime tailored to your microbiome; continuous monitoring of your body's workings and well-being; taking drugs that improve your cognition and help to acquire new skills; manipulating the genes of your unborn children to eliminate disease or even enhance their capabilities.

Written by an award-winning scientist at the forefront of this work, The Secret Body shows how these radical and disconcerting possibilities have been made real thanks to the ingenious technologies and decades-long collaborations of scientists worldwide. A gripping drama of discovery and a landmark account of this dawning revolution, it presents a vision of the human body of dizzying complexity, wonder and possibility.

'A beautifully rendered picture of the startling new discoveries in human biology which are radically altering our understanding of how we function and what our future holds' BRIAN COX

'An extraordinary journey that reveals the magnificence, intricacy and beauty of the human body, fundamentally changing the way we see ourselves. Masterful' ALICE ROBERTS
  • Published: 5 November 2021
  • ISBN: 9781847925695
  • Imprint: Bodley Head
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 224
  • RRP: $45.00
Categories:
Share…

About the author

Daniel M Davis

Daniel M. Davis is Professor of Immunology at the University of Manchester. His research, using super-resolution microscopy to study immune cell biology, was listed in Discover magazine as one of the top 100 breakthroughs of the year. His previous book, The Compatibility Gene, was longlisted for the 2014 Royal Society Winton Science Book Prize, shortlisted for the Society of Biology Book Prize and described by Bill Bryson in the Guardian’s Books of the Year as ‘elegantly written and unexpectedly gripping’. He is also the author of over 120 academic papers, collectively cited over 10,000 times, including articles in Nature, Science and Scientific American.

portrait photo of Daniel M Davis

Also by Daniel M Davis

The Beautiful Cure
The Compatibility Gene
See all

Praise for The Secret Body

As David Attenborough opens our goggling eyes to the natural world without, so Daniel Davis brings us face to face with the stunningly clever and, yes, beautiful world within ... One of those books that makes you look at everything human in a new, challenging and thrilling way

Stephen Fry on The Beautiful Cure

One of the best accounts I have yet come across of the nature of biological science and discovery

Henry Marsh on The Beautiful Cure

Lucid and entertaining … Much as Siddhartha Mukherjee did in his book The Gene, Davis expertly weaves together human stories and scientific endeavour

The Times on The Beautiful Cure

A terrific book by a consummate storyteller and scientific expert

Guardian on The Beautiful Cure

A perfect blend of cutting-edge science and compelling storytelling. Daniel Davis has a rare knack for making complex science comprehensible and thrilling

BILL BRYSON

An extraordinary journey that reveals the magnificence, intricacy and beauty of the human body, fundamentally changing the way we see ourselves. Masterful

ALICE ROBERTS

A beautifully rendered picture of the startling new discoveries in human biology which are radically altering our understanding of how we function and what our future holds

BRIAN COX

Reading The Secret Body is like spending time with an eloquent, well-connected and entertaining enthusiast who has intimate knowledge of the secret worlds that lie within all of us

Roger Highfield

A big-picture forecast of how medicine stands on the threshold of a revolution that will radically change all of our lives ... Davis is a polar opposite of the typecast propeller-hatted futurologist. He is beguilingly informal and affably humorous

The Times

An elegantly written and splendidly concise Cook's Tour of the frontiers of medical biology. It is also an engrossing account of the progress of science

Wall Street Journal

A brilliant deep-dive into the latest discoveries of human health. An inspiration!

TIM SPECTOR, No.1 bestselling author of Spoon-Fed

With this stunning book Daniel M. Davis joins the pantheon of truly great science communicators. It will change the way you think about your self and the people around you. Everyone who has a body will love it

CHRIS VAN TULLEKEN, No.1 bestselling author of Ultra-Processed People

What we now know about the human body would seem magical to people just a hundred years ago... It often reads like a detective story and anyone interested in biology will learn much from this enjoyable book

VENKI RAMAKRISHNAN, Nobel Prize Winner in Chemistry and author of Gene Machine