Author:Frances Ashcroft
'A wonderful book' Bill Bryson
'Ashcroft achieves the sort of rich simplicity most science writers can only dream about ... this book carries the eponymous spark of life' Sunday Telegraph
From before birth to the last breath we draw, from consciousness to sexual attraction, fighting infection to the beating of our hearts, electricity is essential to everything we think and do.
In The Spark of Life award-winning physiologist Frances Ashcroft reveals the secrets of ion channels, which produce the electrical signals in our cells. Can someone really die of fright? How do cocaine, LSD and morphine work? Why do chilli peppers taste hot? Ashcroft explains all this and more with wit and clarity. Anyone who has ever wondered about what makes us human will find this book a revelation.
'A rare gift for making difficult subjects accessible and fascinating' Bill Bryson
'She communicates complex science with engaging passion and eloquence' Helen Dunmore, Observer
'Compelling and very readable, an excellent writer' Literary Review
'Riveting ... she has a stock of good tales' New Scientist
'Lively, conversational prose, refreshingly accessible to any lay reader ... a positively charged little book' Daily Telegraph
Frances Ashcroft is Professor of Physiology at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Trinity College Oxford. She is also Director of OXION, a consortium of scientists studying ion channels, the heroes of this book. Her scientific research focuses on how a rise in your blood sugar level stimulates the release of insulin and what why this process goes wrong in diabetes. She has won many prizes for her research, most recently the L'Oreal/UNESCO 2012 Women in Science award. She is also a recipient of the Lewis Thomas Prize for Science Writing for The Spark of Life. Her first book for the general reader was Life at the Extremes: The Science of Survival.
This is a wonderful book. Frances Ashcroft has a rare gift for making difficult subjects accessible and fascinating
—— Bill BrysonOne of the more momentous books of the decade
—— The New York Times Book ReviewA lucid explanation of how to think probabilistically
—— GuardianThe inhabitants of Westminster are speed-reading The Signal and the Noise... They will find the book remarkable and rewarding
—— Sunday TelegraphIs there anything now that Nate Silver could tell us that we wouldn't believe?
—— Jonathan FreedlandFascinating... our age's Brunel
—— Bryan Appleyard , Sunday TimesA surprisingly accessible peek into the world of mathematical probability
—— Daily TelegraphThe Galileo of number crunchers
—— IndependentA 34-year old Delphic Oracle
—— Daily Beastdense with details, rippling with insight an easy to read... This is everything we need to know.
—— William Leith , Evening StandardAn intense, fluid, intelligent, highly absorbing text that provokes vital questions about sustainability
—— Food MagazineIt's one of those rare books dense with detail, rippling with insight, and easy to read...This is everything we need to know
—— Johanna Thomas-Corr , ScotsmanIn bringing food more directly onto the 'plate' of those who think about buildings and cities, she has done us all a great service
—— Richard Wilk , Building and Research InformationEmotional and resonant… Sharp, funny and sad in equal measure
—— Sally Morris , Daily MailWritten with the same passion and wit that punctuated his reviews for the likes of NME, Coleman shares his journey to reconnecting with the soundtrack of his life
—— Big Issue in the NorthI can’t tell you how good it is but I’ll try… It’s a superb analysis
—— William Leith , Evening StandardA warm, witty and very candid book
—— Natasha Harding , SunThe book offers experiences and, for anyone whose responsiveness to the world has slackened, a reminder of how full experience can be.
—— Amy Leach , ObserverTim Dee has a deep feeling for the natural world and an ability to celebrate it in ways that seem fresh and new.
—— Tim Richardson , Literary Review[Dee] writes so well, and so personably, that he casts a disarming spell over his readers.
—— Mary Blanche Ridge , Tablet[Dee] is at once a naturalist, environmentalist, journalist, historian and diarist. Dee’s rich writing delights as he imparts his considerable research and observations about life and the state of the world
—— Good Book Guide[It] belongs in the tradition of 'nature writing', but works with it too putting its beautifully written sentences in the service of description and evocation, but using them to frame a serious conversation about environmental preservation and its opposites; it’s a deeply attractive book and also an important one.
—— Andrew Motion , GuardianFelt very deeply and pondered very wisely, it takes four areas of the planet and tells their story in ways that bring the plight (and delight) of the earth as a whole within reach.
—— Andrew Motion , Times Literary SupplementA lyrical, poetic reflection on our relationship with the natural world.
—— Tim Maguire , Edinburgh Evening NewsThis profound work by Tim Dee is as creative and original as anything on the Man Booker shortlist and arguably more “useful”... The book’s reach is extraordinary.
—— Bel Mooney , Daily Mail[A] marvellous new memoir.
—— Richard Mabey , New StatesmanAn enthralling and unexpected book of what we have made of the natural world
—— Kathleen Jamie , GuardianThis is nature writing at its finest
—— Juanita Coulson , LadyWith the eye of a birdwatcher and the soul of a poet, Dee meditates on our green spaces and what we have made of them
—— Michael Kerr , TelegraphDee’s rich writing delights as he imparts his considerable research and observations about life and the state of the world
—— Good Book GuideCharged with meaning and lyrically luminous, Four Fields is an unquantifiable work – and an unmissable one
—— Melissa Harrison , The Times
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