What's Gotten into You

The Story of Your Body's Atoms, from the Big Bang Through Last Night's Dinner

By: Dan Levitt

Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain

For listeners of Bill Bryson, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Siddhartha Mukherjee, a wondrous, wildly ambitious, and vastly entertaining work of popular science that tells the awe-inspiring story of the elements that make up the human body, and how these building blocks of life travelled billions of miles and across billions of years to make us who we are.

Every one of us contains a billion times more atoms than all the grains of sand in the earth’s deserts. If you weigh 150 pounds, you’ve got enough carbon to make 25 pounds of charcoal, enough salt to fill a saltshaker, enough chlorine to disinfect several backyard swimming pools, and enough iron to forge a 3-inch nail. But how did these elements combine to make us human?

All matter—everything around us and within us—has an ultimate birthday: the day the universe was born. This informative, eye-opening, and eminently enjoyable book is the story of our atoms’ long strange journey from the Big Bang to the creation of stars, through the assembly of Planet Earth, and the formation of life as we know it. It’s also the story of the scientists who made groundbreaking discoveries and unearthed extraordinary insights into the composition of life. Behind their unexpected findings were investigations marked by fierce rivalries, obsession, heartbreak, flashes of insight, and flukes of blind luck. Ultimately they’ve helped us understand the mystery of our existence: how a quadrillion atoms made of particles from the Big Bang now animate each of our cells.

Shaped by the curious mind and bold vision of science and history documentarian Dan Levitt, this wondrous book is no less than the story of life itself.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2023 Dan Levitt (P)2023 HarperCollins Publishers

Great stuff

Lots of great information written in a very accessible fashion. This was a very easy listen and I came away feeling smarter.

EPIC! An astonishing feat of science writing

Mind-blowing. Listen, ponder, listen again, and then recommend to everyone you know -- science to feed the soul and the imagination

Surprisingly entertaining

I purchased this book because it covered information I wanted to know more about, and expected it to be a bit dry and boring but educational. Instead, the author’s wit and turn of a phrase, along with the excellent narration, made it delightful. Bravo!

This book really deserves a title like, “The greatest story ever told”

Dan Levitt is a master storyteller weaving so many informative bits together so well. This book beautifully ties Physics (how atoms were created) chemistry (how atoms combine to make molecules and processes that make for complexity of life functions), and biology (cells, viruses, and evolution of life) together. It uses history - to tell stories capable of being consumed as stand-alone articles. Each one offers deeper understanding of facts that, in current teaching regimens end up as under appreciated in their magnitude at the hands of well-meaning but ineffective curricula filled with meaningless tidbits that students are required to memorize. This book does the opposite; it piques curiosity which in turn promotes enduring understanding.

Levitt has managed to synthesize such a beautiful story. He’s filled it with so much information that any student could use as a jump-off point for deeper investigation.

I appreciate Dan Levitt’s passion, humanity and brilliance. We are all better for his contribution to understanding who we, as a species are and where we came from. He is a world citizen of the first order

<i>What’s gotten into you”</i> is a collection of the greatest scientific discoveries regarding how humans came to be. I’m in awe of this story. It is something I hoped to write some day. I’ll be re-reading this for years to come.

Despite the title’s catchy play on a phrase, this book really deserves a title like, “The greatest story ever told.” Alas, others have already beat Levitt to it.

Fascinating story told in understandable way

Dan Levitt tells the fascinating story of our evolution from the Big Bang to the limits of our current understanding. He tells the story and history of life on earth to how our bodies work. He explains the science simply without making one feel like he dumbed it down. He leads us through important discovers across the ages and introduces us to the important scientists who contributed to the body of knowledge about life. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and recommend it to anyone with a desire to delve into the subject beyond what they learned in high school science.

Science for non-specialist readers--fascinating!

This is a great book, the type you don't want to put down (or pause--in the case of an audiobook). It tells the story of how scientists explored and created new explanations regarding the composition and processes of creation of the universe of which our bodies are a microcosm, underlining how we are inextricably linked to our material context. It is also especially compelling because the narrative highlights not abstract knowledge but the people who made the discoveries, their struggles, disagreements, triumphs, and interrelationships with each other and their social, political, and professional context. Importantly, Levitt highlights the contributions of several women who made key contributions to this process, even at times when they were not allowed to occupy paid academic positions or had their work confiscated by or credited to others; for me this made the book additionally significant. I highly recommend its purchase, in whatever format you prefer: fortunately it is available in Kindle, print, and audio options!

Wonderful Book for A Non-Science Person

Thoroughly enjoyable for someone for whom astronomy might as well be ancient Chinese language. So well written so that everyone, non-scientists and science geeks can appreciate.
I loved the whole explanation about atoms and the Big Bang. I loved the stories of the scientists.
Excellent narration, too.

Evocative

The book was very informative and stays on point to the history of science. I especially liked how he wrote about biases that deliberately damage scientific discoveries. Great book.

A broad mix of science and history

Overall, I enjoyed this book and learned some things along the way. It seemed to never figure out if it was more about the people involved with discovering what is today understood or the actual science itself. A lot of important steps were thus omitted of the knowledge journey, and for me there was perhaps too much detail on personalities and physical appearance of individuals who sometimes had little importance. But, all that said, I didn’t get bored (listening at 1.5 speed), and some chapters were quite enjoyable.

Outstanding!

I listen to many scientific books, and not many are as engaging and fascinating as this one. The narration is excellent, as well.