The Master Builder
How the New Science of the Cell is Rewriting the Story of Life
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- 3,99 €
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- 3,99 €
Publisher Description
What defines who we are?
Until now, the biological answer has been our genes. Leading biologist Alfonso Martinez Arias breaks with popular tradition to make a bold argument: what defines us is our cells.
Drawing on groundbreaking research, he reveals that we are composed of a thrillingly complex, constantly rearranging symphony of cells that know how to count, feel, and give form to our bodies. While DNA is important, nothing in your genes explains why your heart is on the left, why you have five fingers and not ten, why genetically identical twins have different sets of fingerprints, or why it's possible for a mother to apparently share no DNA with the children she gave birth to! At the heart of it all is a powerful new conception of the essence of life. Our identities are shaped by the interconnections between cells, working cooperatively, creating something greater than its parts - the unbroken lineage that connects us to the fertilized egg from which we developed and back through the billions of years of our planet's history, to the very first cell of all life on Earth.
A sweeping revision of both the present and the history of life, The Master Builder puts forward a new paradigm for understanding biology, transforming our approach to where we come from, what shapes us, and where we are going - as individuals, a species, and the community of life itself.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"What makes you and me individual human beings is not a unique set of DNA but instead a unique organization of cells and their activities," according to this revelatory study. Developmental biologist Martinez Arias's first book for general readers pushes back against the notion that genes are "the architects of our bodies," pointing to the case of triplets who shared a genetic mutation for a cleft lip that manifested differently in each sibling—the cleft was on the right side for one sibling, the middle for another, and the third had a cleft palate—despite all three having identical DNA. What actually explains how individuals develop are cells, which he contends are "master builders" that use the raw "materials" of DNA to construct organisms and have "the ability to learn, move, and count, to measure space and time." To illustrate, he describes how during the early stages of embryonic development cells exchange chemical signals to symmetrically distribute eyes, ears, and arms, revealing an ability to organize geometrically that cannot be accounted for by DNA. Martinez Arias's novel thesis invigorates, and the lucid scientific discussions will hold readers' attention even through involved examinations of how cells respond to specific proteins. This is the perfect complement to Siddhartha Mukherjee's The Song of the Cell. Illus.
