Cells
The Illustrated Story of Life
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
For fans of The Song of the Cell—a profusely, creatively illustrated journey through the origins and evolution of the building blocks of life, from an award-winning biologist and illustrator
In the fifteenth century, as astronomers charted the skies and explorers mapped the globe, the nature of life itself remained a mystery. It wasn’t until the seventeenth century that Robert Hooke, looking through one of the earliest microscopes, coined the term cell. Nearly two centuries later, biologists established that all living organisms—from animals and plants to algae and fungi—are composed of cells. Around the same time, Charles Darwin introduced his theory of evolution, proposing that all life on Earth shares a common origin. Today, the scientific community has defined that origin as LUCA—the Last Universal Common Ancestor.
Unraveling how LUCA—the ancestral cell—emerged billions of years ago and gradually evolved into the vast diversity of life-forms we see today is a fascinating journey through history, biology, and the essence of what it means to be alive. Blending art with science, biologist Christian Sardet takes you on an exploration of DNA, RNA, proteins, protists, viruses, cell reproduction, aging, death, and more.
Written in clear, accessible language and accompanied by artful illustrations, Cells: The Illustrated Story of Life offers an authoritative and visually captivating overview of the building blocks of life. Designed for visual learners and curious minds alike, this immersive exploration of life and evolution brings readers up to date with the latest discoveries—revealing how cells function, how they have evolved, and why they fascinate us.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Biologist and illustrator Sardet (Plankton) delivers a dazzling illustrated overview of the origin and evolution of living things, from the first protocells to complex multicellular organisms. Sardet's history of evolution and biodiversity begins with Charles Darwin's first sketch of the tree of life and proceeds through Lynn Margulis's depiction of five kingdoms of life and the most recent mapping of relationships between organisms through genetic sequencing. Elsewhere, readers learn about LUCA, the elusive "last universal common ancestor," the strange biology of viruses and their outsize influence on evolution and ecosystems, and the astonishingly complex inner machinery and dynamic lives of cells. Sardet details no shortage of strange and fascinating creatures, like the "blob," an amoeba that can solve mazes. The eye-catching imagery includes period drawings and lithographs, images of cells from under the microscope, stunning photographs of trilobite fossils and exploding stars, and the author's own colorful drawings of cells inspired by Guillaume Apollinaire's "calligrams," poems in which words are arranged to form an image. Throughout, QR codes guide readers to computer animations of molecular processes. This is an informative and entertaining exploration of the building blocks of life. Illus.
