Taking an average of 7.5 million breaths per year—600 million in a lifetime—our lungs are synonymous with life, connecting us inextricably to one another as well as to the world around us.

And yet, while the heart has stolen the spotlight in literature and music as the cultural embodiment of our emotions, and the brain is revered as the seat of our thoughts and desires, the lungs have typically been overlooked in cultural and scientific discourse alike.

— The Breath of Life, Jennifer Thorley