Advanced
Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.
Title details for Skeleton Keys by Riley Black (Brian Switek) - Available

Skeleton Keys

The Secret Life of Bone

by Riley Black (Brian Switek)
Will Damron
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 1 copy available
“A provocative and entertaining magical mineral tour through the life and afterlife of bone.” —Wall Street Journal
Our bones have many stories to tell, if you know how to listen.
Bone is a marvel, an adaptable and resilient building material developed over more than four hundred million years of evolutionary history. It gives your body its shape and the ability to move. It grows and changes with you, an undeniable document of who you are and how you lived. Arguably, no other part of the human anatomy has such rich scientific and cultural significance, both brimming with life and a potent symbol of death.
In this delightful natural and cultural history of bone, Brian Switek explains where our skeletons came from, what they do inside us, and what others can learn about us when these artifacts of mineral and protein are all we've left behind.
Bone is as embedded in our culture as it is in our bodies. Our species has made instruments and jewelry from bone, treated the dead like collectors' items, put our faith in skull bumps as guides to human behavior, and arranged skeletons into macabre tributes to the afterlife. Switek makes a compelling case for getting better acquainted with our skeletons, in all their surprising roles. Bridging the worlds of paleontology, anthropology, medicine, and forensics, Skeleton Keys illuminates the complex life of bones inside our bodies and out.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    March 5, 2019

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781984839640
      • File size: 199730 KB
      • Duration: 06:56:06

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Narrator Will Damron gives the opening anecdote of this audiobook the tone of a true-crime story. It's not a murder case, but a would-be suicide stopped by an ossified larynx. The author, who has worked with paleontology field crews, tells the story of life's rise from the sea as seen in a tiny doodle of a fossil that had an early spine and skeletal system. Damron keeps up the dramatic tone through a tour of the Mutter Museum, Philadelphia's medical museum; California's La Brea Tar Pits; and other macabre sites. But mostly he captures the author's curiosity and enthusiasm as he takes on such questions as how to keep astronauts' bones from losing mass on the long trip to Mars. J.A.S. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Loading