What's Gotten Into You

The Story of Your Body's Atoms, from the Big Bang Through Last Night's Dinner

By: Dan Levitt

Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain

For readers of Bill Bryson, Neil deGrasse Tyson and Siddhartha Mukherjee, a wondrous, wildly ambitious, and vastly entertaining work of popular science that tells the awe-inspiring story of the elements that make up the human body, and how these building blocks of life travelled billions of miles and across billions of years to make us who we are.

Every one of us contains a billion times more atoms than all the grains of sand in the earth’s deserts. If you weigh 150 pounds, you’ve got enough carbon to make 25 pounds of charcoal, enough salt to fill a saltshaker, enough chlorine to disinfect several backyard swimming pools, and enough iron to forge a 3-inch nail. But how did these elements combine to make us human?

All matter—everything around us and within us—has an ultimate birthday: the day the universe was born. This informative, eye-opening, and eminently readable book is the story of our atoms’ long strange journey from the Big Bang to the creation of stars, through the assembly of Planet Earth, and the formation of life as we know it. It’s also the story of the scientists who made groundbreaking discoveries and unearthed extraordinary insights into the composition of life. Behind their unexpected findings were investigations marked by fierce rivalries, obsession, heartbreak, flashes of insight, and flukes of blind luck. Ultimately they’ve helped us understand the mystery of our existence: how a quadrillion atoms made of particles from the Big Bang now animate each of our cells.

Shaped by the curious mind and bold vision of science and history documentarian Dan Levitt, this wondrous book is no less than the story of life itself.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

Very good overview!

As a PhD organic chemist, this was a fascinating and straightforward narrative. It was very well done. This historical accounts were vey interesting! I did find it annoying that at one point (@ 36 min 25 sec into chapter 13), there was a reference to “molecules of negatively charged sodium ions”. This is false. First, sodium ions are not molecules, which by definition, are atoms that are chemically bonded to other atoms to make a make a single unit of the substance. Sodium ions in a biological aqueous medium are not “bonded” to other atoms, but are single entities. Second - and most importantly - sodium ions are cations that are always positively charged. I listened to it many times to confirm what was said. I chalk this up either to misreading the text by the narrator (unlikely) or a typo in the text, which is a huge error because these are such basic chemical facts. In the next sentence, there was a correct reference to “positively charged potassium ions” so I know the author probably made mistake in the text, and was not caught during review. It did make me wonder what else could have been wrong that I may have missed. On balance though, this was a very good listen. The narrator was excellent. The ending was particularly touching and inspiring!

Great stuff

Lots of great information written in a very accessible fashion. This was a very easy listen and I came away feeling smarter.

As engrossing as a novel

Beautifully written. The way Levitt tells the history of each discovery as a story of human trial and error is as engaging as a novel. It's got everything from physics to academic politics to hot-air balloons, all of which helped (or hindered) our understanding of what goes on inside our own bodies. I'm reading it again and enjoying it just as much the second time.

beautiful

if life is weird for you at the moment, this book will help. i had to slow down the speed and may listen to it again and take notes, because it is rrally good

One of the Very Best Science Books I have Read

This one hits it on all cylinders. The subtitle doesn't remotely come close to what you learn in this book. VERY well done. I really appreciate how good of a book this is. I read a lot of science books and this ranks right near the top. I look forward to Levitt's next book. Great author, This book was a treat. I have purchased several copies and given away to other science readers. I cannot talk this one up enough.