Pump, Bill Schutt
Pump, Bill Schutt
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Pump
A Natural History of the Heart

Author: Bill Schutt

Narrator: LJ Gasner

Unabridged: 7 hr 50 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/21/2021

Synopsis

"Fascinating . . . Surprising entertainment, combining deep learning with dad jokes . . . [Schutt] is a natural teacher with an easy way with metaphor.”—The Wall Street JournalIn this lively, unexpected look at the hearts of animals—from fish to bats to humans—American Museum of Natural History zoologist Bill Schutt tells an incredible story of evolution and scientific progress.

We join Schutt on a tour from the origins of circulation, still evident in microorganisms today, to the tiny hardworking pumps of worms, to the golf-cart-size hearts of blue whales. We visit beaches where horseshoe crabs are being harvested for their blood, which has properties that can protect humans from deadly illnesses. We learn that when temperatures plummet, some frog hearts can freeze solid for weeks, resuming their beat only after a spring thaw. And we journey with Schutt through human history, too, as philosophers and scientists hypothesize, often wrongly, about what makes our ticker tick. Schutt traces humanity’s cardiac fascination from the ancient Greeks and Egyptians, who believed that the heart contains the soul, all the way up to modern-day laboratories, where scientists use animal hearts and even plants as the basis for many of today’s cutting-edge therapies.

Written with verve and authority, weaving evolutionary perspectives with cultural history, Pump shows us this mysterious organ in a completely new light.

About Bill Schutt

Bill Schutt is a professor of biology at LIU Post and a research associate in residence at the American Museum of Natural History. His first book, Dark Banquet: Blood and the Curious Lives of Blood-Feeding Creatures, was selected as a Best Book of 2008 by Library Journal and Amazon, and was chosen for the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers program. Born in New York City and raised on Long Island by parents who encouraged his love for turning over stones and peering under logs, Bill quickly grew a passion for the natural world, with its enormous wonders and its increasing vulnerability. He received his PhD in zoology from Cornell and has published over two dozen peer-reviewed articles on topics ranging from terrestrial locomotion in vampire bats to the precarious, arboreal copulatory behavior of a marsupial mouse. His research has been featured in Natural History magazine as well as the New York Times, Newsday, the Economist, and Discover magazine. He was recently reelected to the board of directors of the North American Society for Bat Research. A recipient of the Theodore Roosevelt Award at the AMNH, Bill lives on the East End of Long Island with his wife and son.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Kate

This book pulled me in from the beginning. I loved how it felt like we got to learn along with the author as he did his own research. You could tell he was excited to inform us on all that he knew about the heart. He did a notable job touching all topics heart-related (humans, animals, invertebrates......more

Goodreads review by Ben

Strongest in its comparisons of different animals' circulatory systems. I suppose this must all be in Wikipedia, but it was still new to me. In the second half, however, Schutt's coverage of the human heart and circulatory system is extremely shallow, not even at the level of most popular press. Thi......more

Quotes

"Fascinating . . . Surprising entertainment, combining deep learning with dad jokes . . . [Schutt] is a natural teacher with an easy way with metaphor.”
—The Wall Street Journal

“[A] show-stopping exploration of cardiac biology . . . Informative, playful, and impossible to put down."
—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“This brisk and engaging history of hearts of all forms and sizes packs a punch.”
—Foreword Reviews, starred review

“Pump is a natural history of the heart and the science is fascinating. Schutt is a zoologist, and entertainingly details the evolution of the heart. I especially loved how this book so successfully tells the human story, of how and why we came to regard the heart as something more than a blood-pumping organ. There are cool animals and plenty of song lyrics, tales of medical misadventure and triumph, and even time with one gigantic whale heart. As with all Schutt’s non-fiction, there’s a mix of both humor and the macabre. It is science writing at its finest.”
—Cool Green Science (blog of The Nature Conservancy)

"An easy-to-read and fascinating look into the complexity and wonder of the heart in its many forms."
—Booklist

"Schutt covers a lot of ground here and discusses serious science, but his witty style keeps it readable . . .  An engaging, often droll look at the engine of life and the long history of efforts to understand it."
—Library Journal

"Wonderful. Pump is informative and entertaining and the science is impeccable. I highly recommend it."
—Joseph C. Piscatella, author ofDon’t Eat Your Heart Out

“Pump is an absolutely fascinating journey through the human heart by way of our animal kin. It's so packed with cool details, you'll want to read it twice.”
—Jennifer S. Holland, author of the New York Times bestselling Unlikely Friendships series
 
“Pump takes readers on a fantastic and fascinating voyage of all matters of the heart.”  
—Cat Warren, author of What the Dog Knows
 
“As Bill Schutt delightfully shows us in his new book, hearts have gripping stories to tell about a huge range of topics, from the history of life on our planet to the foibles of humankind.”
—Ian Tattersall, coauthor of The Accidental Homo Sapiens
 
“Narrating stories from across the animal kingdom, Schutt brings his usual intelligence and humor to this well-curated natural history of the heart and circulatory system. Pump is not your cardiologist’s book on the heart. A rich and entertaining read that will leave you feeling smarter.”
­—Darrin Lunde, Author of The Naturalist

“A fine overview of an essential organ.”
—Kirkus Reviews
 

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