The Human Body, Its Parts and The Stories They Tell

Anatomies

The Sunday Times Science Book of the Year, Anatomies by Hugh Aldersey-Williams, author of bestseller Periodic Tales, is a splendidly entertaining journey through the art, science, literature and history of the human body. 
 
'Magnificent, inspired. He writes like a latter-day Montaigne. Stimulating scientific hypotheses, bold philosophic theories, illuminating quotations and curious facts. I recommend it to all' Telegraph ***** 
 
'Splendid, highly entertaining, chock-full of insights ... It inserts fascinating scientific snippets and anecdotes about our organs into the wider history of our changing understanding of our bodies' Sunday Times 
 
'A relentlessly entertaining cultural history of the human body ... brims with fascinating details, infectious enthusiasm ... the terrain he covers is so richly brought to life' Guardian 
 
'Elegant and informative ... For Aldersey-Williams, [the body] is a thing of wonder and a repository of fascinating facts' Mail on Sunday **** 
 
In Anatomies, bestselling author Hugh Aldersey-Williams investigates that marvellous, mysterious form: the human body. Providing a treasure trove of surprising facts, remarkable stories and startling information drawn from across history, science, art and literature - from finger-prints to angel physiology, from Isaac Newton's death-mask to the afterlife of Einstein's brain - he explores our relationship with our bodies and investigates our changing attitudes to the extraordinary physical shell we inhabit. 
 
'More than a science book - it's also history, biography and autobiography - Anatomies is writing at its most refined, regardless of genre' Sunday Times 
 
Praise for Periodic Tales: 
 
'Science writing at its best ... fascinating and beautiful ... if only chemistry had been like this at school ... to meander through the periodic table with him ... is like going round a zoo with Gerald Durrell ... a rich compilation of delicious tales, but it offers greater rewards, too' Matt Ridley 
 
'Immensely engaging and continually makes one sit up in &shy;surprise' Sunday Times 
 
'Splendid ... enjoyable and polished' Observer 
 
'Full of good stories and he knows how to tell them well ... an agreeable jumble of anecdote, reflection and information' Sunday Telegraph 
 
'Great fun to read and an endless fund of unlikely and improbable anecdotes ... sharp and often witty' Financial Times 
 
Hugh Aldersey-Williams studied natural sciences at Cambridge. He is the author of several books exploring science, design and architecture and has curated exhibitions at the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Wellcome Collection. His previous book Periodic Tales: The Curious Lives of the Elements was a Sunday Times bestseller and has been published in many languages around the world. He lives in Norfolk with his wife and son.

Magnificent, inspired. Stimulating scientific hypotheses, bold philosophic theories, illuminating quotations and curious facts. I recommend it to all

Chock-full of insights, rich in detail. Inserts fascinating scientific snippets and anecdotes about our organs into the wider history of our changing understanding of our bodies

Brims with fascinating details, infectious enthusiasm . . . the terrain he covers is so richly brought to life

Elegant and informative. A thing of wonder and a repository of fascinating facts

Hugh Aldersey-Williams studied natural sciences at Cambridge. He is the author of several books exploring science, design and architecture and has curated exhibitions at the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Wellcome Collection. His previous book Periodic Tales: The Curious Lives of the Elements was a Sunday Times Bestseller and has been published in many languages around the world. He lives in Norfolk with his wife and son.

In Anatomies, bestselling author Hugh Aldersey-Williams investigates that marvellous, mysterious form: the human body. 
 
Did you know that your bladder has a snooze button? Or that a child's arm can support the weight of a car? That one in two hundred of us has a spare rib, and some have an extra X or Y chromosome? That while the British fall 'flat on their face', the Germans fall, more precisely, 'on their nose'? That in Ancient Egypt, the symbol for a heart was a vase, and that in contemporary sweden it is used for unisex lavatories? 
 
From ancient body art to plastic surgery, early anatomists to conceptual artists, grave-robbers to bionic athletes, Anatomies blends history and science, art and the everyday, to chart our ever-changing understanding of the human body, providing a treasure trove of surprising facts, remarkable stories and startling information.

The Curious Lives of the Elements

Periodic Tales

THE PHENOMENAL SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 
 
 'Science writing at its best. If only chemistry had been like this at school' Matt Ridley 
 ____________________ 
 
 Everything in the universe is made of them, including you. Like you, the elements have personalities, attitudes, talents, shortcomings, stories rich with meaning. 
 
 Here you'll meet iron that rains from the heavens and noble gases that light the way to vice. You'll learn how lead can tell your future while zinc may one day line your coffin. You'll discover what connects the bones in your body with the Whitehouse in Washington, the glow of a streetlamp with the salt on your dinner table. 
 
 Unlocking their astonishing secrets and colourful pasts, Periodic Tales is a voyage of wonder and discovery, showing that their stories are inextricable from the stories of our own lives. 
 ____________________ 
 
 'A love letter to the chemical elements. Aldersey-Williams is full of good stories and he knows how to tell them well' Sunday Telegraph 
 
 'The history, science, art, literature and everyday applications of all the elements from aluminium to zinc' The Times 
 
 'Great fun to read and an endless fund of unlikely and improbable anecdotes' Financial Times

Science writing at its best ... fascinating and beautiful ... if only chemistry had been like this at school ... to meander through the periodic table with him ... is like going round a zoo with Gerald Durrell ... a rich compilation of delicious tales, but it offers greater rewards, too

Immensely engaging and continually makes one sit up in &shy;surprise

Full of good stories and he knows how to tell them well ... an agreeable jumble of anecdote, reflection and information

Great fun to read and an endless fund of unlikely and improbable anecdotes ... sharp and often witty

A joyous romp through the chemical elements

Not only a cultural history of the elements, it is also a lament to the loss of science as a hobby

A flashily brainy book, crammed with literary references and held together by a personal quest to collect as many elements as possible

'Elements are fun' is the essential premise of Hugh Aldersey-Williams's new book and by heck he's right ... Aldersey-Williams mourns the fact chemistry isn't really sexy any more; Periodic Tales is a step towards it getting its mojo back

Imaginative and fun ... almost every page yields a nugget

Hugh Aldersey-Williams studied natural sciences at Cambridge. He is the author of several books exploring science, design and architecture - including Periodic Tales, Anatomies and The Adventures of Sir Thomas Browne in the 21st Century - and has curated exhibitions at the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Wellcome Collection. He lives in Norfolk with his wife and son.

Everything in the universe is made of them, including you. 
 
Like you, the elements have personalities, attitudes, talents, shortcomings, stories rich with meaning. 
 
Here you'll meet iron that rains from the heavens and noble gases that light the way to vice. You'll learn how lead can tell your future while zinc may one day line your coffin. You'll discover what connects the bones in your body with the Whitehouse in Washington, the glow of a streetlamp with the salt on your dinner table. 
 
Unlocking their astonishing secrets and colourful pasts, Periodic Tales is a voyage of wonder and discovery, showing that their stories are our stories, and their lives are inextricable from our own.

Panicology

Simon and Hugh met at the age of six, united in fear of Dr Who and by a concern that a diet of tinned pears and chocolate custard must be too enjoyable to be healthy. Hugh won a scholarship to read Natural Sciences at St John's College, Cambridge. Simon didn't - but, armed with a social sciences degree, has held proper jobs in the civil service, investment banking and at the Financial Times. Hugh is a writer and curator, and the author of a number of books on architecture and design and science, the most recent being Findings: Hidden Stories in First-Hand Accounts of Scientific Discovery. Simon's books include Interpreting the Economy and Britain in Numbers. They are married, but not to each other, and have three children, two of whom are siblings. Simon watches house prices rising in London. Hugh watches the sea level rising in Norfolk.

What exactly are your chances of being struck by a meteorite? 
Think you're having less sex than the French? 
How high will sea levels actually rise? 
 
We live in an increasingly uncertain world. There's so much to worry about it is often hard to know what to really panic about. But stay calm! For Panicology is the perfect answer to the conundrums and questions that bedevil modern life. Putting a lit match to the lies, headlines and statistical twaddle that seeks to frighten us, it explores 40 reasons for worry: from binge-drinking to Frankenstein foods, bird flu to alien abductions - and explores what, if any, effect they will have on your life. 
 
Why worry in ignorance when you can be a happy, informed sceptic?

Hugh Aldersey-Williams

A spring tide of colour and historical anecdote laps over the more austere mudflats of the actual science. So much so that I find myself looking forward to the next piece of technical exposition

Imagine, if possible, a gently studious Bill Bryson crossed with an upbeat and relaxed WG Sebald. It is a superb book... a delight to read. It is profound and powerful, and should win prizes.

This fascinating book deftly explores the dramatic history, critical importance, and scientific wonder of the tides. Hugh Aldersey-Williams is a marvelous guide who takes the reader on a sweeping and thought-provoking adventure into the heart of one of the most captivating, mysterious, and elemental forces of nature

Eric Jay Dolin, author of Brilliant Beacons: A History of the American Lighthouse

Prepare for a voyage with the best of companions - Hugh Aldersey-Williams is a storyteller supreme, and he's found a subject worthy of his talents

Edward Dolnick, author of The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, the Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern World

Science writing at its best ... fascinating and beautiful

Immensely engaging and continually makes one sit up in surprise

Aldersey-Williams is full of good stories and he knows how to tell them well

Engaging and thoughtful... Like some of the most compelling biographers, Aldersey-Williams partly inhabits his subject

Literary Review on The Adventures of Sir Thomas Browne in the 21st Century

Exposes new facts and ideas every other page

Aldersey-Williams's corrective meshes a history of the science with tide-related technologies and tidally sculpted events. It's an eloquent ebb and flow

The Science and Lore of the Greatest Force on Earth

Half of the world's population lives in coastal regions lapped by tidal waters. Yet how little most of us know about the tide. 
 
With Aldersey-Williams as our guide to the most feared and celebrated tidal features on the planet, from the original maelstrøm in Scandinavia to the world's highest tides in Nova Scotia to the crumbling coast of East Anglia, the importance of the tide, and the way it has shaped - and will continue to shape - our civilization, becomes startlingly clear.

Tide

About us

About Us (Header 4)

Best-Jane-Austen-quotes_Online-Desktop_Penguin

James-Baldwin

Marian-Keyes

haruki-murakami-320×320-1

Richard-Osman

Malorie Blackman

Lisa-Jewell

Charlie-Mackesy

Authors (Header 3)

Children&#039;s

Company

Discover

Fiction

Non-fiction

Penguin Classics

Penguin Shop (Header 5)

Useful links

Work with us

sectionTitle

isEnabled

anchor

anchorLabel

prhuk/featured-book

prhuk/praise-section

maxBooks

showViewMore

prhuk/books-section

hideAuthorAlert

formName

iterableDivision

iterableBrand

buttonText

description

heading

legalText

successHeading

successText

image

alignment

variation

prhuk/email-section

prhuk/series-section

prhuk/biography-section

prhuk/articles-section

prhuk-authors

The perfect gift? A Penguin Shop gift card

Hugh Aldersey-Williams

Praise for Tide

A spring tide of colour and historical anecdote laps over the more austere mudflats of the actual science. So much so that I find myself looking forward to the next piece of technical exposition

Imagine, if possible, a gently studious Bill Bryson crossed with an upbeat and relaxed WG Sebald. It is a superb book... a delight to read. It is profound and powerful, and should win prizes.

This fascinating book deftly explores the dramatic history, critical importance, and scientific wonder of the tides. Hugh Aldersey-Williams is a marvelous guide who takes the reader on a sweeping and thoug ...

A spring tide of colour and historical anecdote laps over the more austere mudflats of the actual science. So much so that I find myself looking forward to the next piece of technical exposition

Imagine, if possible, a gently studious Bill Bryson crossed with an upbeat and relaxed WG Sebald. It is a superb book... a delight to read. It is profound and powerful, and should win prizes.

This fascinating book deftly explores the dramatic history, critical importance, and scientific wonder of the tides. Hugh Aldersey-Williams is a marvelous guide who takes the reader on a sweeping and thoug ...

A spring tide of colour and historical anecdote laps over the more austere mudflats of the actual science. So much so that I find myself looking forward to the next piece of technical exposition

Imagine, if possible, a gently studious Bill Bryson crossed with an upbeat and relaxed WG Sebald. It is a superb book... a delight to read. It is profound and powerful, and should win prizes.

This fascinating book deftly explores the dramatic history, critical importance, and scientific wonder of the tides. Hugh Aldersey-Williams is a marvelous guide who takes the reader on a sweeping and thoug ...

Books by Hugh Aldersey-Williams

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter