Shocked: Adventures in Bringing Back the Recently Dead

In this laid-back book about electroshocking people back to life, hospice doctor Casarett addresses the “financial ethical, and emotional” costs of life-saving resuscitation while asking, “What happens when we test the boundaries of life?” He wanders amiably through research on death, resuscitation technologies, hibernation, suspended animation, and hypothermia, lingering longer on the personalities—and stories—behind studies than on the studies themselves. Readers learn the relatively unsurprising news that cardiopulmonary resuscitation via electric shock is often effective, but no cure-all, sometimes leaving patients who have underlying disorders in bad shape. Similarly unsurprising is the news that humans have not yet learned how to hibernate for the winter, place ourselves in suspended animation for trips to space, or cryopreserve ourselves into another life. But Casarett does point out strides made in research and technology: scientists know how to freeze the body just right—via hypothermic circulatory arrest—so our brains can survive stopped-heart procedures, and are studying the chemical wizardry hibernating animals employ, in the not unrealistic expectation that humans will someday be able to follow suit. Casarett accessibly reveals the work being done that may enable us to sleep far more, and so travel far further—in both place and time—than we ever dreamed. [em](Aug.) [/em]