Electricity is at the heart of how we are formed, how our brains speak to our bodies, how we heal after injuries, how we think, move, feel. In ‘We Are Electric: The New Science of our Body’s Electrome' (Canongate Books, £20, ISBN 9781838853327), Sally Adee explores the discovery of ‘galvanism’, the confusing steps towards understanding bioelectricity since then, and the incredible applications under development today.

The history of bioelectricity makes for a compelling yarn. It involves larger-than-life characters, a disagreement between two men which spawned an epic war between the physical and life sciences, shocking experiments conducted in public, yet more shocking experiments conducted in private, more ‘faecal explosions’ than might reasonably be expected, and many unfortunate frogs.

Bioelectricity has long been associated with quacks offering electrical treatments for everything from diarrhoea to, er, homosexuality. The shadow of ‘electroquackery...