The Body: A Guide for Occupants - THE SUNDAY TIMES NO.1 BESTSELLER

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The paradox of genetics is that we are all very different and yet genetically practically identical. All humans share 99.9 percent of their DNA. Unlike the rest of the body, the palms don't sweat in response to physical exertion or heat, but only from stress. Emotional sweating is what is measured in lie-detector tests. The information may be familiar, but the anecdotes are not always so (and even when they are, Bryson’s delivery still freshens them a bit) and therefore the entertainment value holds. Yes, it’s simplified and sometimes some accuracy may be questioned, but for a popular medicine book it actually fares quite alright.

When the book’s not enraging, it’s just dull. Bryson mostly elides his own narrative voice, which is his main strength as a writer, in favor of pretending to be an authority, so we get an endless dull recitation of facts that many readers already know. (And many of which we learned from more engaging books than this one.) Classic, wry, gleeful Bryson... richly interesting... an entertaining and absolutely fact-rammed book. If it sells hundreds of thousands of copies, like the last one, it will be no bad thing.' Sunday TimesBut as the title suggests, outright occupancy usually comes with a rental charge. The bill always comes due. People act as if skin color is a determinant of character when all it is is a reaction to sunlight. Biologically, there is actually no such thing as race - nothing in terms of skin color, facial features, hair type, bone structure or anything else that is a defining quality among peoples." - Nina Jablonski

The (current) rate of antibiotic withdrawals – because they don't work any more or have become obsolete – is twice the rate of new introductions. The obvious consequence of this is that the arsenal of drugs we have to treat bacterial infections has been going down and there is no sign of it stopping. What makes this much worse is that a great deal of our antibiotic use is simply crazy. Almost three-quarters of the forty million antibiotic prescriptions written each year in the United States are for conditions that cannot be cured with antibiotics..... Even more appallingly, in the United States 80 per cent of antibiotics are fed to farm animals, mostly to fatten them. Fruit growers can also use antibiotics to combat bacterial infections in their crops. In consequence, most Americans consume second-hand antibiotics in their food ... without knowing it. Or did you know how many things we still cannot explain? One such thing are emotional responses like crying when sad - it has no physiological benefit AND is the same response as for joy so why are we doing it? The bottom line is that we ended up with brains big enough to handle complex thoughts and vocal tracts uniquely able to articulate them."In the second or so since you started this sentence, your body has made a million red blood cells." (and used a dozen muscles just to read these words)

Most other mammals never suffer strokes, and for those that do it is a rare event. But for humans, it is the second most common cause of death globally, according to the World Health Organization. Why this should be is something of a mystery. I went into this book with the attitude of "of course, Bill Bryson can make anything interesting", but I was still a little unsure if this was the right book for me. There are definitely interesting aspects of the body, but I'm more of a "fun fact here, quirky tidbit there" kinda person. I wasn't sure I wanted to read a whole book full of words I can't pronounce. But, no, Bill Bryson really can make anything interesting. The great paradox of the brain is that everything you know about the world is provided to you by an organ that has itself never seen that world. The brain exists in silence and darkness, like a dungeoned prisoner. It has no pain receptors, literally no feelings. It has never felt warm sunshine or a soft breeze. To your brain, the world is just a stream of electrical pulses, like taps of Morse code. And out of this bare and neutral information it creates for you—quite literally creates—a vibrant, three-dimensional, sensually engaging universe. Your brain is you. Everything else is just plumbing and scaffolding.”Even with the advantage of clothing, shelter and boundless ingenuity, humans can manage to live on only about 12 per cent of Earth’s land area”