The story―and the science―of nature's greatest engine.
Whether we blink an eye, lift a finger, throw a spear or a ball, walk, run, or merely breathe, we are using muscle. Although muscles differ little in appearance and performance across the animal kingdom, they accomplish tasks as diverse as making flies fly, rattlesnakes rattle, and squid shoot their tentacles.
Our everyday activities turn on the performance of nature's main engine: we may breathe harder going uphill, but we put more strain on our muscles walking downhill. Those of us who are right-handed can tighten screws and jar lids more forcibly than we can loosen them. Here we're treated to the story of how form and performance make these things happen―how nature does her work.
Steven Vogel is a leader in the great new field of bioengineering, which is rapidly explaining the beauty and efficiency of nature. His talents as both scientist and writer shine in this masterful narrative of biological ingenuity, as he relates the story―and science―of nature's greatest engine.
Beneath the skin of a human being's inner upper arm, some metaphorically minded ancient Greek once observed, lives a little mouse. In Latin, this imagined creature, evident in the bump of the biceps, was called
musculus, the origin of our word
muscle. It's a staggeringly complex animal, we learn from this vivid exploration of the muscular world--one that requires much care and feeding, and that repays that attention with endless, efficient energy.
Biologist and bioengineer Steven Vogel takes us deep within our bodies, observing humans and other animals at rest and work to show how muscles expand and (sort of) contract, how our proprioceptive system coordinates that motion, how bodily mass relates to metabolism, and many other matters. Muscle is, of course, meat, and Vogel closes his book with a discussion of why meat has so long been prized in the human diet--and why today we can do without it and still keep the motor running.
Vogel's book is a fine example of how complex science can be made comprehensible to nonspecialists--and just the thing for a budding physiologist. --Gregory McNamee
