About this item

Inducing highs of excitement anger and terror adrenaline fuels the extremes of human experience A rush empowers superhuman feats in emergencies Risk-taking junkies seek to replicate this feeling in dangerous recreations And a surge may literally scare us to death Adrenaline brings us up to speed on the fascinating molecule that drives some of our most potent experiences Adrenaline was discovered in and quickly made its way out of the lab into clinics around the world In this engrossing account Brian Hoffman examines adrenaline in all its capacities from a vital regulator of physiological functions to the subject of Nobel Prizexwinning breakthroughs Because its biochemical pathways are prototypical adrenaline has had widespread application in hormone research leading to the development of powerful new drugs Hoffman introduces the scientists to whom we owe our understanding tracing the paths of their discoveries and aspirations and allowing us to appreciate the crucial role adrenaline has played in pushing modern medicine forward Hoffman also investigates the vivid at times lurid place adrenaline occupies in the popular imagination where accounts of its life-giving and lethal properties often leave the realm of fact Famous as the catalyst of the xCfight or flightxD response adrenaline has also received forensic attention as a perfect poison untraceable in the bloodstreamxand rumors persist of its power to revive the dead True to the spirit of its topic Adrenaline is a stimulating journey that reveals the truth behind adrenalinexs scientific importance and enduring popular appeal.