I’d read a few of the stories contained in here in other books (most memorably the one of the doctor who touches his own heart,) but they were all still worth hearing again and to have so many all centered on the heart in one place was great. Plus, while I was reading it, the genetically modified pig heart finally did get used in a human body and worked… making me feel like I was all up to date on the cutting edge.. everything was easy to understand without any noticeable condescension or extreme dumbing down. Really enjoyed it ( )

I have never forgotten my high school biology teacher Mr. Gasiorowski. His enthusiasm for his subject was evident. When he explained how cells divide, his eyes lit up and he was animated and excited. He told unforgettable stories about encountering the animals we studied. He made learning fun.

I found that kind of excitement in Bill Schutt, and the stories he shares in Pump are entertaining while they educate. Schutt takes us into the hearts of living things, from those living fossils the horseshoe crab to pythons, explaining the mechanics of how hearts work. We learn about broken heart syndrome, how a tropical amoeba may have damaged Charles Darwin’s heart, leading to his death, and a condensed history of medicine and the evolving understanding of the human heart.

In 288 pages, it was a quick read, with illustrations to facilitate understanding.

The future of medicine could involve some very interesting options, such as using vegetable cellulose as a scaffolding for regenerating organs.

It was a fun read. I can imagine Dr. G recommending it to our biology class, as he did other books, and I would have enjoyed it as much then as I did today.

I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

Now available in paperback. ( )

New works of popular science nonfiction are examining fascinating scientific themes through entertaining stories. Educators will find these useful in identifying timely examples for their classrooms.

Pump: A Natural History of the Heart
Bill Schutt, Sep 2021, Algonquin Books, an imprint of Workman
Themes: science, life science, biology, circulation, heart

PUMP shares the evolutionary history of circulation and specifically the heart. Weaving together scientific observations with cultural connections, Schutt examines the history of this organ through amazing stories and examples.
Take-aways: Use examples from PUMP to help youth see how our understanding of the circulatory system has evolved over time. ( )

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. This left me feeling disappointed.

> Corals, jellyfish, and comb jellies had already split off from the rest of the invertebrates before the evolution of the muscle-producing mesoderm.

> In the brain, however, the astrocytes restrict that back-and-forth movement, allowing the passage of only some substances (like oxygen, glucose, and alcohol) out of the tiny vessels. As for how that works, the astrocytes have footlike structures, appropriately called perivascular feet, which act as a barrier, covering the capillary walls

> insects lack hearts. How can a circulatory system possibly function without a heart? Well, like the horseshoe crab and many creatures with open circulatory systems, each insect possesses a dorsal vessel that runs along the midline of its entire body. Here, though, the blood vessel itself comes equipped with ostia, the intake valves we recently saw in the horseshoe crab heart. The dorsal vessel, therefore, acts somewhat like a heart, in that nutrient-rich hemolymph enters through the ostia and is expelled by contraction of the vessel’s muscular walls. Once the hemolymph leaves the dorsal vessel, it enters chamber-like hemocoels throughout the body, bringing it into contact with the head and major organs.

> Evolution has solved this problem for the giraffe, though, in the form of thick, tight-fitting skin on their legs. This arrangement works on the same principle as compression stockings worn by humans. Both prevent edema by decreasing the flow of blood into limb vessels

> One interesting side effect of hibernation is that it causes animals to live longer, and to age more slowly. Bats can live for over twenty years in the wild, an unusually long span for such a small mammal

> zebrafish hearts are able to fully regenerate after the amputation of up to 20 percent of their single ventricle

> within three days of consuming a meal, the heart of a Burmese python increases in size by 40 percent. … Not only are they able to digest prey up to half of their own body weight in a period of only four to six days, but they are able to harness that digestion into tissue growth. With the exception of the Burmese python’s brain, which is confined within the skull, “nearly every organ in the body undergoes an extremely rapid growth in size and mass,” Leinwand told me. This change is not merely due to an accumulation of fluid; it consists of actual tissue growth, usually taking place within twenty-four hours after consuming a meal. ( )