THE EXQUISITE MACHINE

THE NEW SCIENCE OF THE HEART

AUTHOR SIAN E. HARDING PUBLISHER MIT PRESS PRICE £25 / $28.95 RELEASE 20 SEPTEMBER

The heart is that pump in your chest that keeps you alive – but its complexity is underrated. Although the core mechanics are important, there’s so much more to learn about this organ, and this book will keep you up to date with the latest and most significant scientific findings. Delivered by Sian Harding, a leading cardiac researcher, it includes advanced knowledge written in a conversational and captivating manner. The Exquisite Machine includes facts and findings such as information about how new hearts can be made from stem cells and what can be done to an old and failing heart to keep it functioning. The book explores not just the evolution of the heart’s functional traits, but also how our knowledge of its traits and adaptations have evolved.

How have we learned that the heart can regenerate itself, or that people’s hearts can fail to function after severely emotional events? Incredible discoveries, new to the average reader and research scientists alike, reveal how emotion is both controlled by and can control the heart’s functions. Using a combination of exact figures pulled from recent studies and more generally known facts, the author explains which features of the heart are predetermined by factors such as biological sex or hormones and how we can improve our heart health through lifestyle and treatment.