What's gotten into you : the story of your body's atoms, from the Big Bang through last night's dinner / Dan Levitt.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Levitt, Dan, author.

Contributor:

Edward Potts Cheyney Memorial Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Matter--Constitution--Popular works.

Matter.

Human body--Composition--Popular works.

Human body.

Atoms--Popular works.

Atoms.

Physical Description:

xiv, 385 pages ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Other Title:

What has gotten into you

Story of your body's atoms, from the Big Bang through last night's dinner

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2023]

Summary:

"The awe-inspiring story of the elements that make up the human body, and how these building blocks of life traveled billions of miles across billions of years to make us who we are."-- From book jacket.

Every one of us contains a billion times more atoms than there are gains of sand in the Earth's deserts. How did these elements combine to make us human? Levitt shares the awe-inspiring story of the elements that make up the human body, and how these building blocks of life traveled billions of miles across billions of years to make us who we are. It's also the story of the scientists who made groundbreaking discoveries-- investigations marked by fierce rivalries, obsession, heartbreak, flashes of insight, and flukes of blind luck. -- adapted from jacket

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: pt. I THE JOURNEY BEGINS: FROM A BIG BANG TO A ROCKY HOME

1. Happy Birthday to Everyone: The Priest Who Discovered the Beginning of Time

2. "That's Funny": What the Eye Can Never See

3. The Best Man at Harvard: The Woman Who Changed How We See the Stars

4. Catastrophes to Be Thankful For: How to Make a World from Gravity and Dust

pt. II LET THERE BE LIFE!

5. Dirty Snowballs and Space Rocks: The Biggest Flood of All Time

6. The Most Famous Experiment: The Search for the Origin of the Molecules of Life

7. The Greatest Mystery: The Puzzling Origin of the First Cells

pt. III FROM SUNLIGHT TO DINNER PLATE

8. Light Assembly Required: Discovering Photosynthesis

9. Lucky Breaks: From Ocean Scum to Green Planet

10. Planting the Seeds: How Greenery and Its Allies Made Us Possible

pt. IV FROM ATOMS TO YOU

11. So Much Depends on So Little: What Do You Need to Eat to Survive?

12. Hidden in Plain Sight: The Discovery of Your Master Blueprint

13. Elements and All: What Is Really Inside You?.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 345-365) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Edward Potts Cheyney Memorial Fund.

ISBN:

9780063251182

0063251183

OCLC:

1357543982

Publisher Number:

99993181346