Dr. Sherwin Nuland offers a mesmerizing portrait of the tumultuous universe within us: the turbulence of chemistry, the seeming chaos of tissue, the volatile responsiveness of cells. And he shows how, amazingly, the stability of health rides on these tempests.

But the real secret of our species' survival lies in how we have transcended mere survival: how we have made use of our unique biology to travel the long road from the creature Homo to the human being. That journey is the central story of The Wisdom of the Body: how we have developed the singular quality that makes each of us unique - the human spirit.