Blood is a vital component of the bodies of most multicellular animals. Chris Cooper discusses blood's critical role in both biology and in human society, ranging from its place in religious rituals to its uses in modern medicine.

• 1: A history of blood


• 2: What is blood?


• 3: Fighting Disease


• 4: Haemoglobin


• 5: Blood pressure and blood flow


• 6: Blood transfusion


• 7: Epilogue: the future of blood


• Further Reading


• Index

Professor Chris Cooper is a distinguished biochemist with over 20 years research and teaching experience. He has won several prestigious awards and sat on a number of influential national and international committees (including the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Biochemical Society, and the Biophysical Society). His research is regularly featured in local and national radio, television and newspapers, and he has appeared as an invited expert on BBC2's Horizon, and Radio 4's The World Tonight and Material World. This is his second book for OUP, having previously written Run, Swim, Throw, Cheat (2013).