But, he adds, “who would have thought that we would be incomplete without some molybdenum inside us, or vanadium, manganese, tin, and copper?” Bryson employs the example of an “obliging Benedict Cumberbatch,” of medium height and build and good health, to venture that the real cost of a human is “a very precise $151,578.46,” a figure that turns out to wiggle and wobble as we layer on additional costs. Not so, he writes: We’re made up of 59 elements, including carbon and oxygen.

Early on, he pokes at the old bromide that the human body is an assemblage of a few dollars’ worth of assorted chemicals and minerals. The author does some on-the-ground digging, talking to scientists and physicians, while plowing through libraries of literature to get at the story of how our bodies work. The intrepid explorer and popular travel writer journeys inward-literally-to explore our mortal coil.Ī narrative by Bryson ( The Road to Little Dribbling: Adventures of an American in Britain, 2016, etc.) rarely involves the unfolding of a grand thesis instead, it’s a congeries of anecdotes, skillfully strung, always a pleasure to read but seldom earthshakingly significant.

Bill bryson the body