Prime Mover: A Natural History of Muscle

Beneath the skin of a human being's inner upper arm, some metaphorically minded ancient Greek once observed, lives a little mouse. In Latin, this imagined creature, evident in the bump of the biceps, was called musculus, the origin of our word muscle. It's a staggeringly complex animal, we learn from this vivid exploration of the muscular world--one that requires much care and feeding, and that repays that attention with endless, efficient energy.

Biologist and bioengineer Steven Vogel takes us deep within our bodies, observing humans and other animals at rest and work to show how muscles expand and (sort of) contract, how our proprioceptive system coordinates that motion, how bodily mass relates to metabolism, and many other matters. Muscle is, of course, meat, and Vogel closes his book with a discussion of why meat has so long been prized in the human diet--and why today we can do without it and still keep the motor running.

Vogel's book is a fine example of how complex science can be made comprehensible to nonspecialists--and just the thing for a budding physiologist. --Gregory McNamee