Every part of the human body has a name - and story. But how familiar are you with your arachnoid mater or your Haversian canals? O! How an art-full, word-mad book about the body can exercise the mind.”—from the foreword by Holly Dunsworth Even the term “flaw” requires clarification. Living things, and everything they make, eventually fail. The cause of failure is a flaw only when the failure is premature. A race car that fails beyond the end of the race has no engineering flaws. In the same way, bodies that fail in the postreproductive span of life may contain numerous design oddities, but they have no design flaws as far as evolution goes.

This exhibit explores war injuries: how to treat them and what it was like experience them. It comes complete with an interactive opportunity to see what it would be like to have an arm amputated. Roberts . . . finds that our uniqueness is often more complicated and surprising than we could have imagined.”—Forbes Another popular exhibit at the Mütter Museum is Grimm's Anatomy: Magic and Medicine, which delves into the more disturbing side of the iconic fairy tales. For example, the exhibit explores how German brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm's version of Cinderella draws visceral parallels to the tradition of Chinese foot-binding. Roberts . . . finds that our uniqueness is often more complicated and surprising than we could have imagined.” — Forbes Had we been crafted for extended operation, we would have fewer flaws capable of making us miserable in our later days. Evolution does not work that way, however. Instead it cobbles together new features by tinkering with existing ones in a way that would have made Rube Goldberg proud.

Inside The Mütter Museum

I have an impression of early anatomists, almost exclusively men, poring over the intricate structures of the human body and becoming quite excited when they found anything that reminded them of a bit of female anatomy. It’s extraordinary how many parts of the body, apart from the breasts themselves, are named after breasts and nipples.” This quote, which made me laugh out loud, was in reference to the mammillary bodies that are situated in the brain—far away from what we think of as female accoutrements.

Roberts is a prolific TV presenter, and Ancestors skillfully deploys the arts of screen storytelling: narrative pace, a sense of mysteries being unfolded. . . . [It] is above all a tribute to the archaeological profession.”—The Times At this point in history, we need to exploit our expanding knowledge of evolution to enhance the quality of our lives as we grow older because the single-minded pursuit of life extension without considering health extension could be disastrous. This article was originally published with the title "If Humans Were Built to Last" in SA Special Editions 24, 1s, 106-111 (March 2015)

Table of Contents

Alice Roberts writes as a scholar with the intensity and flair of a novelist.”—Dan Snow, author, historian, and award-winning television presenter Living things are exceedingly complex, and experience teaches us that undesirable consequences invariably arise whenever humans have taken over the reins of evolution to modify organisms (microbes, plants and animals) to suit their purposes. The most worrisome trade-off for genetic manipulation directed toward living longer would be an extension of frailty and disability rather than an extension of youthful health and vitality. This is a book everyone should read. Roberts is the new Da Vinci, able to shift between science and humanities, the objective and subjective, the global and the individual. There is such a scope of knowledge between the covers of this book that you feel like a better and more knowledgeable person having read it. A mind-altering, life-altering book.”— Dr. Janina Ramirez A Means to an End: The Biological Basis of Aging and Death. William R. Clark. Oxford University Press, 1999.

Anatomical Oddities is an artistic and linguistic adventure, taking the reader on a journey to discover the hidden landscape of the human body: its crypts and caverns, gorges, islets and mountains. Along the way, we dip into the history of our relationship with the human body and the discoveries that paved the way for modern anatomy and medicine. Roberts is a prolific TV presenter, and Ancestors skillfully deploys the arts of screen storytelling: narrative pace, a sense of mysteries being unfolded. . . . [It] is above all a tribute to the archaeological profession.”— The Times Though cobbled together by the blind eye of evolution, humans have proved to be a remarkably successful species. We have outcompeted almost every organism that we have encountered, with the notable exception of microbes. We have blanketed the earth and even walked on the moon. We have even figured out how to escape premature death and survive to old age. Bulging disks, fragile bones, fractured hips, torn ligaments, varicose veins, cataracts, hearing loss, hernias and hemorrhoids: the list of bodily malfunctions that plague us as we age is long and all too familiar. Why do we fall apart just as we reach what should be the prime of life? Did you know you have cobwebs in your head, hair in your lungs, and snails in your ears? In the world of anatomy, every name paints a picture: from the arachnoid mater, a brain membrane resembling a spider’s web, to the ciliated epithelium of the respiratory tract (from the Latin for “eyelash”) and the curlicue cochleas (from the Greek for “snail”) that power our hearing.For the most part, the book is a sober look at anatomical terms and history but, occasionally, the author sneaks in a bit of snark, such as the following: PDF / EPUB File Name: Anatomical_Oddities_-_Alice_Roberts.pdf, Anatomical_Oddities_-_Alice_Roberts.epub Buried is a tender, fascinating act of listening—of listening to the tales the dead have to tell us about the landscapes we share with them, the histories we have constructed around them, and the futures we imagine for ourselves. Lucid and illuminating.”—Robert Macfarlane A masterful account of why our bodies are the way they are. . . . Roberts's lightness of touch is joyous, and celebratory.”—Observer O! How an art-full, word-mad book about the body can exercise the mind.” —from the foreword by Holly Dunsworth