We Are Electric

Inside the 200-Year Hunt for Our Body's Bioelectric Code, and What the Future Holds

By: Sally Adee

Narrated by: Sally Adee

Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

Science journalist Sally Adee breaks open the field of bioelectricity—the electric currents that run through our bodies and every living thing—its misunderstood history, and why new discoveries will lead to new ways around antibiotic resistance, cleared arteries, and new ways to combat cancer.

You may be familiar with the idea of our body's biome: the bacterial fauna that populate our gut and can so profoundly affect our health. In We Are Electric, we cross into new scientific understanding: discovering your body's electrome.

Every cell in our bodies—bones, skin, nerves, muscle—has a voltage, like a tiny battery. It is the reason our brain can send signals to the rest of our body, how we develop in the womb, and why our body knows to heal itself from injury. When bioelectricity goes awry, illness, deformity, and cancer can result. But if we can control or correct this bioelectricity, the implications for our health are remarkable: an undo switch for cancer that could flip malignant cells back into healthy ones; the ability to regenerate cells, organs, even limbs; to slow aging and so much more. The next scientific frontier might be decrypting the bioelectric code, much the way we did the genetic code.

Yet the field is still emerging from two centuries of skepticism and entanglement with medical quackery, all stemming from an 18th-century scientific war about the nature of electricity between Luigi Galvani (father of bioelectricity, famous for shocking frogs) and Alessandro Volta (inventor of the battery).

In We Are Electric, award-winning science writer Sally Adee takes listeners through the thrilling history of bioelectricity and into the future: from the Victorian medical charlatans claiming to use electricity to cure everything from paralysis to diarrhea, to the advances helped along by the giant axons of squids, and finally to the brain implants and electric drugs that await us—and the moral implications therein.

The bioelectric revolution starts here.

©2023 Ms. Sally Adee (P)2023 Hachette Books

Critic reviews

"Sally Adee manages that most difficult feat in science writing: taking a subject you didn’t know you cared about and making it genuinely fascinating and exciting. The ‘ohmigod-that’s-so-cool’ moments come thick and fast as she brings the science up to date, investigating today’s cutting edge and what the future may hold for bioelectric medicine. It’s a vast and hugely exciting area of scientific research, shared with infectious enthusiasm, a real depth of knowledge, a smart and funny turn of phrase. You’ll never think of life in the same way again."—Caroline Williams, author of Move!: The New Science of Body Over Mind

"A revelatory survey of bioelectricity...[Adee] masterfully shows the implications of new discoveries and spotlights where the science doesn’t add up....With lucid explanations and fascinating anecdotes, Adee is the perfect guide to this hidden realm. Pop science fans, take note."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Please don't let authors read their own books

I agree with Kayla the great. That's why I copied her title - thank you Kayla. Unless it's John le Carre' may he rest in peace, Bill Bryson or Simon Winchester I don't think I'll ever purchase another audio book read by the author. It should be enough to write a really informative, much needed book. It's as though with every sentence she's ready for her close up. To further agree with Kayla, my legs got tired sitting cross-legged on the library floor as I listened to the Library Lady read to me in her sing-song voice. I couldn't finish it although I really, really wanted to hear the information. I'm a biologist and am so disappointed. I'd return it if I knew how. Honestly, I'm not usually this snarky, but I'm just so disappointed. Most NYT recommendations always satisfy, but not this time. Since I didn't finish it, my evaluations of the Story and Overall are guesses and unfair. The book is obviously well researched and probably a great read. I'll get the hardback.

Medical hope for the future

Having a electrical engineering background, and having an understanding of electricity that resides in the heart and the brain, l thought that I knew pretty much everything about this topic. instead, I learned so much and I feel that there is so much hope for the future by studying electric current in the body. I have always believed that everything on earth is based on electricity, and the earth is the battery. Thank you for this wonderful book. I think it’s amazing. I think that most people who have no idea what electricity is all about may find the beginning part a little boring but when you describe how it affects health and in particular cancer, I think most people will find this to be a very dynamic and triumphant book.

Research and science made interesting!

Cutting edge, comprehensive review and chronicle of recent medical research communicated in plain English. Thank you, Sally Ade, for a fast moving and well organized collection of stories depicting a view of medical research from forty thousand feet with a final close up view bringing current research into focus. May you inspire a new generation of medical scientists and practitioners. I have listened twice and am preparing to listen again with Notes (the app). At 70 years old, I have watched the curve of medical discoveries accelerate logarithmically over the past 10 years. 3/26/2023 22:30 Eastern GJBrownDO

What a great writer and a wonderful speaker

I really enjoyed this book and the history of bioelectricity. Compelling stories and great insights. Lots of things to look into based on her review of where the science is. Extremely compelling.

A-Level Substance; B-Level Writing; C+ Performance

I found the substance of this book to be fascinating. Adee has undertaken great research, and obviously has a very strong grasp of her subject. So I would definitely recommend the book, probably more in written form than on Audible. I find her writing to be a bit over the top. I did not like her performance of this book at all. Maybe she is trying to hard.

Awesome subject material

Learned a lot of important details. So much information I found myself backing up and reading chapters for a second time.

Read the book

To start with the positive, this is a well-researched book on something of fundamental interest, and it does explain things clearly.
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For the rest ... Well, Sally Adee's narration of her own book captures its tone very faithfully, and that, I think, is why so many people are annoyed by it. At one point, having explained several times in the last few pages what an ion is, she goes on, "Remember that an ion is a charged atom." It's not strange that people feel talked down to. Adee can write perfectly clear exposition, addressed to adults, and she's good when she does, but then she drops into a cloying folksiness, as if she thinks that her readers are rubes and she'll lose them unless she stoops to their level.

I think the problem is simply that her style hasn't matured yet. At times it's like reading a high school essay, chatty and innocently self-centered. Adee even speaks of "my book" in the middle of the text. When she interviews someone who thinks that it's not useful to break down science into separate disciplines, which is off topic to begin with, she says "I can't think of any good alternatives, however." The introduction talks about how participating in a biolelecticity experiment got her a dream job at New Scientist.
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So if this kind of sensibility grates on you, you might have to grit your teeth sometimes, and you do have to keep in mind where the author is coming from. It is useful work, however, and goes down more easily as a book rather than a recording.

Great! Lively, Entertaining and Fascinating New Frontiers in Science

As someone with an occipital nerve stimulator implant for chronic migraine (from a very bad biking accident with TBI and severe soft tissue injuries in neck), I’m always curious to hear what the new science is in the field. This did not disappoint—a mix of history, current science and future research and treatment possibilities. Wraps up with some thoughtful analysis of how silo-style academia is holding back this particular field and what some of the ethical considerations going forward might be. Especially loved the bits about frogbots and squid tech. The narration took some getting used to as it’s very enthusiastic, bordering on story time circle. I listen to a lot of dry non fiction narration and this is not that. However—I actually stayed engaged and awake and even rewound many times to rehear an interesting section. So maybe more narration should be this lively. Will follow this author. Also, the writing was tight and well edited with a good flow that didn’t get too bogged down in minutiae so good for non-scientists like myself. As a final note, I appreciated the author didn’t insert herself into the narrative in the moody belly-button-gazing style of a lot of current quasi science books about biology or zoology. Her personal connection is relevant and interesting but just included long enough to get the ball rolling. Wish more authors could find this balance.

Scientific, heartfelt, and fun!

Enjoyed author’s reading and writing… this has convinced me electricity is the future. Looking forward to the sequel :)

Fascinating

Measured, unbiased, hopeful; yet not overstated. Excellent narration, really enjoyed the book. Highly recommend to anyone who has a loved one suffering from a neurological condition