This story is excerpted and adapted from Bill Schutt’s PUMP: A Natural History of the Heart, published in September 2021 by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. All rights reserved. Winter is coming, and when it arrives, most organisms can’t simply throw down the snow shovel and head for their warm homes. Many have evolved unique mechanisms to deal with exposure to cold temperatures and the stresses that accompany them. For warm-blooded species, including those that do wield snow shovels, the body compensates for low external temperatures by working to hold…
