How the Body Works

1: Under the microscope


1: Who’s in charge?
2: Organ to cell
3: How cells work
4: What is DNA?
5: How cells multiply
6: How genes work
7: How genes make different cells
8: Stem cells
9: When DNA goes wrong


2: Holding it together


1: Skin Deep
2: Outer defences
3: The extremities
4: Pillars of support
5: Growing bones
6: Flexibility
7: Biting and chewing
8: The grinder
9: Skin damage
10: Breaking and mending
11: Wearing thin


3: On the move


1: Pulling power
2: How do muscles pull?
3: Working, stretching, pulling, braking
4: Sensory input, action output
5: The control centre
6: Communication hub
7: Sparking into life
8: Act or relax?
9: Knocks, sprains, and tears


4: Sensitive types


1: Feeling the pressure
2: How do you feel?
3: Pain’s pathway
4: How the eye works
5: Forming an image
6: Vision in the brain
7: Eye problems
8: How the ear works
9: How the brain hears
10: Balancing act
11: Hearing problems
12: Catching a scent
13: On the tip of the tongue
14: Body position sense
15: Integrated senses
16: Using your voice
17: Reading faces
18: What you don’t say


5: The heart of the matter


1: Filling your lungs
2: From air to blood
3: Why do we breathe?
4: Coughs and sneezes
5: The many tasks of our blood
6: How the heart beats
7: How blood travels
8: Broken blood vessels
9: Heart problems
10: Exercising and its limits
11: Fitter and stronger
12: Maximizing your fitness


6: In and out


1: Feeding the body
2: How does eating work?
3: A mouth to feed
4: Gut reaction
5: Up, down, and out
6: Bacterial breakdown
7: Cleaning the blood
8: Water balance
9: How the liver works
10: What the liver does
11: Energy balance
12: The sugar trap
13: Feast or fast?
14: Digestive problems


7: Fit and healthy


1: Body battleground
2: Friend or foe?
3: Germs are us
4: Damage limitation
5: Infectious diseases
6: Looking for trouble
7: Assassination squad
8: Cold and flu
9: Vaccine action
10: Immune problems


8: Chemical balance


1: Hormone factories
2: How hormones work
3: Inner balance
4: Hormonal changes
5: Daily rhythms
6: Diabetes


9: The circle of life


1: Sexual reproduction
2: Monthly cycle
3: Tiny beginnings
4: The generation game
5: Growing life
6: Mother’s new body
7: The miracle of birth
8: Primed for life
9: Growing up
10: Hormonal teenagers
11: Getting older
12: The end of life


10: Mind matters


1: Learning skills
2: Making memories
3: Falling asleep
4: Entering your dreams
5: All emotional
6: Fight or flight?
7: Emotional problems
8: Feeling attraction
9: Extraordinary Minds


11: Index
12: Acknowledgements