Vital Circuits: On Pumps, Pipes, and the Workings of Circulatory Systems

by Steven Vogel, Rosemary Anne Calvert (Illustrator)

Overview

Why is it a bad idea to hold your breath when you strain? Why does dust collect on the blades of a fan? Why should you wear support hose on a long airplane flight? These seemingly unrelated questions -- and many, many more -- are answered in the pages of Vital Circuits, an original and witty guide to the workings of the circulatory system. Using everyday points of reference, such as heating systems, kitchen basters, cocktail parties, and balloons, Vogel makes potentially daunting concepts accessible to anyone curious about the workings of the body. Whether discussing the ground-breaking discoveries of such scientists as William Harvey and Otto Loewi, or looking at the circulatory systems of such fellow earth-dwellers as octopi, hummingbirds, and giraffes, Vogel illustrates the workings of the human body with clarity, humor, and ease.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190282035
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	04/01/1993
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

About the Author: Steven Vogel is Professor of Zoology at Duke University. His most recent book Life's Devices, which Nature hailed as "brilliant and eccentric," won the first Irving and Jean Stone Prize for Science Writing for Public Understanding.

Table of Contents

1	Plumbing Ourselves	3
2	Pumps and Pipes	19
3	Getting There	43
4	Pressure	57
5	How Blood Moves	73
6	Why Move Blood?	97
7	Pliant Pipes	115
8	Hearts, Again	135
9	Moving Oxygen	155
10	Moving Heat	175
11	Tiny Vessels	195
12	Control	213
13	Leftovers	237
14	And, Finally	255
	Glossary	271
	References	289
	Index	295