Vendor
	Fletcher Agency Melissa Chinchillo
Original language
English
Categories
Society & Social Sciences Mathematics & Science

THE BODY BUILDERS

Adam Piore

Inside the Science of the Engineered Human

For millennia, humans have tried—and often failed—to master nature and transcend our limits. But this has started to change. The new scientific frontier is the human body: the greatest engineers of our generation have turned their sights inward, and their work is beginning to revolutionize mankind.

In The Body Builders, Adam Piore takes us on a fascinating journey into the field of bioengineering—which can be used to reverse engineer, rebuild, and augment human beings—and paints a vivid portrait of the people at its center. Chronicling the ways new technology has retooled our physical expectations and mental processes, Piore visits people who have regrown parts of their fingers and legs in the wake of terrible traumas, tries on a muscle suit that allows him to lift ninety pounds with his fingertips, dips into the race to create “Viagra for the brain,” and shadows the doctors trying to give mute patients the ability to communicate telepathically.

As science continues to lay bare the mysteries of human performance, it is helping us to see—and exist—above our expectations. The Body Builders will take readers beyond the headlines and the hype to introduce them to the inner workings and the outer reaches of our bodies and minds, and explore how new developments are changing, and will forever change, what is possible for humankind.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Adam Piore is an award-winning journalist based in New York. A former editor and correspondent for Newsweek magazine, his narrative features have appeared in Conde Nast Traveler, GQ, Discover magazine, Mother Jones, Playboy, Scientific American, the Atavist, BusinessWeek and many others.

Available products
Book Published 2017-03-14 by Ecco/HarperCollins

Comments

Deftly captures the lives of remarkable people propelled by circumstance and their own considerable courage onto the blazing frontier of science and medicine. . . . a profound look at what the future holds…for all humanity.

Adam Piore has created an often-inspiring and always-enthralling portrait of a world where the blind see with sound, a boy remembers every day of his life and a man with paralyzing Lou Gehrig’s Disease can manipulate objects with nothing more than his brain. A captivating read.

Mind-blowing. Piore tells the stories of the doctors and engineers and patients who are together part of an amazing scientific revolution. A wonderful book that will excite your intellect and emotions.

An exhilarating look. . . . A mind-bending read that will expand your perception of self.

The Body Builders is revelatory. . . . . After reading about the untapped powers within us, you’ll come away with a profound appreciation for the reserves of strength and creativity we all hold but, in all likelihood, never dreamed of.

Piore writes gracefully, and with deep insight, about complex scientific endeavors that could ease human suffering but are fraught with myriad ethical perils.

…a fresh and surprisingly moving tale of people fighting against the odds to overcome their limitations and the visionary inventors with a passion to help them.