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How We Live and Why We Die: The Secret Lives of Cells
Acclaimed biologist Lewis Wolpert eloquently narrates the basics of human life through the lens of its smallest the cell.
Everything about our existence— imagination and reproduction, birth and death—is governed by our cells. They are the basis of all life in the universe, from the tiniest of bacteria to the most complex of animals. Genes in developing embryos determine the makeup of individuals, and the rapid firing between nerve cells creates the spirit of who we are. When we age, our cells cannot repair the damage they have undergone; when we get ill, it is because cells are so damaged they stop working and die.
In the tradition of Lewis Thomas’s science classic The Lives of a Cell, Wolpert, an internationally acclaimed embryologist, draws on the recent discoveries of genetics to demonstrate how human life derives from a single cell and then grows into a an incredibly complex society made up of billions of cells. Wolpert sensitively examines the science behind often controversial research topics that are much discussed by rarely understood—stem cell research, cloning, DNA, and mutating cancer cells—all the while illuminating how the intricacies of cellular behavior bear directly on human behavior.
Wolpert isn’t afraid to tackle the tough questions, including how and why single cells evolved into complex organisms and, first and foremost, what gave rise to the original cell, the origin of all life. Lively and passionate, How We Live and Why We Die is both an accessible guide to understanding the human body and a deeply reverent meditation on life itself.
Everything about our existence— imagination and reproduction, birth and death—is governed by our cells. They are the basis of all life in the universe, from the tiniest of bacteria to the most complex of animals. Genes in developing embryos determine the makeup of individuals, and the rapid firing between nerve cells creates the spirit of who we are. When we age, our cells cannot repair the damage they have undergone; when we get ill, it is because cells are so damaged they stop working and die.
In the tradition of Lewis Thomas’s science classic The Lives of a Cell, Wolpert, an internationally acclaimed embryologist, draws on the recent discoveries of genetics to demonstrate how human life derives from a single cell and then grows into a an incredibly complex society made up of billions of cells. Wolpert sensitively examines the science behind often controversial research topics that are much discussed by rarely understood—stem cell research, cloning, DNA, and mutating cancer cells—all the while illuminating how the intricacies of cellular behavior bear directly on human behavior.
Wolpert isn’t afraid to tackle the tough questions, including how and why single cells evolved into complex organisms and, first and foremost, what gave rise to the original cell, the origin of all life. Lively and passionate, How We Live and Why We Die is both an accessible guide to understanding the human body and a deeply reverent meditation on life itself.
250 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2009
77 people are currently reading
753 people want to read
About the author
Lewis Wolpert
34 books108 followersLewis Wolpert CBE FRS FRSL (born October 19, 1929) is a developmental biologist, author, and broadcaster.
Career
He was educated at the University of Witwatersrand, Imperial College London, and at King's College London. He is presently Emeritus Professor of Biology as applied to Medicine in the Department of Anatomy and developmental biology at University College London.
He is well known in his field for elaborating and championing the ideas of positional information and positional value: molecular signals and internal cellular responses to them that enable cells to do the right thing in the right place during embryonic development. The essence of these concepts is that there is a dedicated set of molecules for spatial coordination of cells that is the same across many species and across different developmental stages and tissues. The discovery of Hox gene codes in flies and vertebrates has largely vindicated Wolpert's positional value concept, while identification of growth factor morphogens in many species has supported the concept of positional information.
In addition to his scientific and research publications, he has written about his own experience of clinical depression in Malignant Sadness: The Anatomy of Depression. This was turned into three television programmes entitled 'A Living Hell' which he presented on BBC2.
He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1980 and awarded the CBE in 1990. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1999.
He is a Vice-President of the British Humanist Association.
Theories
Wolpert is regarded as a rationalist. In an April 7, 2005 article entitled "Spiked", The Guardian asked a series of scientists "What is the one thing everyone should learn about science?" Wolpert responded, "I would teach the world that science is the best way to understand the world, and that for any set of observations, there is only one correct explanation. Also, science is value-free, as it explains the world as it is. Ethical issues arise only when science is applied to technology – from medicine to industry."
In a lecture entitled "Is Science Dangerous?", he expanded on this: "I regard it as ethically unacceptable and impractical to censor any aspect of trying to understand the nature of our world."
On May 25, 1994, Wolpert conducted an hour-long interview with Dr. Francis Crick called "How the Brain 'sees' " for The Times Dillon Science Forum; a video of the interview was produced by Just Results Video Productions for The Times.
On January 15, 2004, Wolpert and biologist/ parapsychologist Rupert Sheldrake engaged in a live debate regarding the evidence for telepathy. It took place at the Royal Society of Arts in London.
In the late 1960s Wolpert proposed the illustrative French flag model, which explains how signalling between cells early in morphogenesis could be used to inform cells with the same Genetic regulatory network of their position and role.
He is credited with the famous quote: "It is not birth, marriage, or death, but gastrulation which is truly the most important time in your life."
An early book was The Unnatural Nature of Science. His most recent book is Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast.
In May 2008, he gave one of four plenary lectures at the European Society for the Study of Science and Theology in Sigtuna, Sweden. His talk was reported as follows:
Lewis Wolpert's plenary address entitled "The Origins of Science and Religion" was provocative, amusing and from a totally materialist perspective. In his view, religion arose from the uniquely human need for causal explanations, and neither religion nor philosophy contributed anything of importance to scientific undersanding. ... ESSSAT is to be congratulated for offering its platform to a strong-minded materialist, but in the end Wolpert proved unable to enter serious debate with the conference theme or its participants.
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Career
He was educated at the University of Witwatersrand, Imperial College London, and at King's College London. He is presently Emeritus Professor of Biology as applied to Medicine in the Department of Anatomy and developmental biology at University College London.
He is well known in his field for elaborating and championing the ideas of positional information and positional value: molecular signals and internal cellular responses to them that enable cells to do the right thing in the right place during embryonic development. The essence of these concepts is that there is a dedicated set of molecules for spatial coordination of cells that is the same across many species and across different developmental stages and tissues. The discovery of Hox gene codes in flies and vertebrates has largely vindicated Wolpert's positional value concept, while identification of growth factor morphogens in many species has supported the concept of positional information.
In addition to his scientific and research publications, he has written about his own experience of clinical depression in Malignant Sadness: The Anatomy of Depression. This was turned into three television programmes entitled 'A Living Hell' which he presented on BBC2.
He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1980 and awarded the CBE in 1990. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1999.
He is a Vice-President of the British Humanist Association.
Theories
Wolpert is regarded as a rationalist. In an April 7, 2005 article entitled "Spiked", The Guardian asked a series of scientists "What is the one thing everyone should learn about science?" Wolpert responded, "I would teach the world that science is the best way to understand the world, and that for any set of observations, there is only one correct explanation. Also, science is value-free, as it explains the world as it is. Ethical issues arise only when science is applied to technology – from medicine to industry."
In a lecture entitled "Is Science Dangerous?", he expanded on this: "I regard it as ethically unacceptable and impractical to censor any aspect of trying to understand the nature of our world."
On May 25, 1994, Wolpert conducted an hour-long interview with Dr. Francis Crick called "How the Brain 'sees' " for The Times Dillon Science Forum; a video of the interview was produced by Just Results Video Productions for The Times.
On January 15, 2004, Wolpert and biologist/ parapsychologist Rupert Sheldrake engaged in a live debate regarding the evidence for telepathy. It took place at the Royal Society of Arts in London.
In the late 1960s Wolpert proposed the illustrative French flag model, which explains how signalling between cells early in morphogenesis could be used to inform cells with the same Genetic regulatory network of their position and role.
He is credited with the famous quote: "It is not birth, marriage, or death, but gastrulation which is truly the most important time in your life."
An early book was The Unnatural Nature of Science. His most recent book is Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast.
In May 2008, he gave one of four plenary lectures at the European Society for the Study of Science and Theology in Sigtuna, Sweden. His talk was reported as follows:
Lewis Wolpert's plenary address entitled "The Origins of Science and Religion" was provocative, amusing and from a totally materialist perspective. In his view, religion arose from the uniquely human need for causal explanations, and neither religion nor philosophy contributed anything of importance to scientific undersanding. ... ESSSAT is to be congratulated for offering its platform to a strong-minded materialist, but in the end Wolpert proved unable to enter serious debate with the conference theme or its participants.
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Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews
August 2, 2016
This book wasn't bad. While generally the scientific basis was solid, certain parts were poorly explained, which makes comprehension rather difficult for any subject matter more complex than the elementary facts.
I also tended to get rather infuriated by Wolpert's tendency to go off on a tangent with some seemingly-indignant rant about one topic or another, be it controversy surrounding stem cell research and abortion or the misuse of scientific terms. I feel such personal and subjective outlooks do not fit into a non-fiction and supposedly objective biology book.
Nevertheless, it is an informative piece which I would recommend to avid scientists.
I also tended to get rather infuriated by Wolpert's tendency to go off on a tangent with some seemingly-indignant rant about one topic or another, be it controversy surrounding stem cell research and abortion or the misuse of scientific terms. I feel such personal and subjective outlooks do not fit into a non-fiction and supposedly objective biology book.
Nevertheless, it is an informative piece which I would recommend to avid scientists.
August 14, 2018
Overall, it seemed like a superficial review of my second semester freshmen biology course. My favorite Chapter (11) was on how bacteria and viruses are dealt with by ourselves. Everything seems to be explained simply, but some parts did make me lose interest, and there wasn't much of a nice conclusion.
November 4, 2018
4 stars. I am going to try to get this review done.
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April 15, 2011
The book is a good crash course on Cellular Biology. It gives a quick overview of the modern state of understanding of the functions of the cell and its impact on humans at large (brains, immune system, diseases, etc). The book could have benefited from illustrations as some of the paragraphs go into very detailed descriptions of processees that can be hard to visualize. Many topics are only given a paragraph or a sentence, and the reader will have to follow up with other books to learn anything in-depth. The book moves at a fast pace and often jumps from one topic to the next without a meaningful transition. The narrative can be dry at times, but it is friendly to non-scientists and I was able to get through the whole book in just a few days and without falling asleep along the way.
This is a good book from which to learn the reality of how little we know about life and how distant prospects like artificial intelligence, immortality or even the cure for cancer are. The book does answer the "How" question in the title, but I am not convinced as to the "Why".
This is a good book from which to learn the reality of how little we know about life and how distant prospects like artificial intelligence, immortality or even the cure for cancer are. The book does answer the "How" question in the title, but I am not convinced as to the "Why".
July 26, 2017
The front of the book blurbs this as ‘a layperson’s guide to the world within us’, and that’s exactly what this is: it’s an accessible, easy to read, whistle-stop tour of cells in the human body, and some of the history surrounding how we’ve come to understand them. If you’ve read almost anything else on the topic, there’s probably nothing new here — but if you’re revising for an exam, you could do worse than spending some time with it. Wolpert manages to explain some complex things very cogently: for example, how enzymes work in breaking bonds, changing molecules, etc.
For me, this was a bit too much of a skimming of the surface — this is stuff I know to the point where I don’t even have to look it up anymore. But for someone not that experienced in biology, or trying to refresh their memory, it’d be perfect.
Reviewed for The Bibliophibian.
For me, this was a bit too much of a skimming of the surface — this is stuff I know to the point where I don’t even have to look it up anymore. But for someone not that experienced in biology, or trying to refresh their memory, it’d be perfect.
Reviewed for The Bibliophibian.
February 16, 2024
Reading what is essentially a biology textbook wasn't on my 2024 bingo card but nevertheless, here we are.
Key takeaway: we have trillions of cells working unfathomably hard every second, with millions of processes, just to keep us alive and healthy. Stop sabotaging them.
Key takeaway: we have trillions of cells working unfathomably hard every second, with millions of processes, just to keep us alive and healthy. Stop sabotaging them.
March 30, 2024
Mostly, I learned that the cell is much too complex for me to understand. Some drawings might have helped, but likely I don't have a scientific mind. The author probably explained the secrets of our cells as simply as they could be explained. He does try to explain the cell's workings and complexities with comparisons to things like origami, house plumbing, the French flag (to explain patterning), and a Rube Goldberg cartoon. It was interesting on pages 81-83, in my edition, that the author states those religionists who are against abortion need to be consistent and also be against IVF. Oops! Little did he know in 2009, when the book was written, that antiabortionists would make that leap in 2024 (think, Alabama's new law). Of course, the author has some disagreement with the anti-abortionist stance in itself.
The final chapter on how the first cell might have originated was also interesting and very complex. Wolpert asserts that even though we don't currently understand that mystery of origins, it is "a mystery that will eventually be solved" (p. 215). He later suggests that a computer algorithm and computation will likely be the key to this riddle's answer.
He gives a brief paragraph to the faith of those who believe in God-as-designer and says that such faith gives "the advantage of not having to struggle with the difficult problem of how the cell evolved." He also states, "There is no evidence whatsoever for such a creator or designer." Throughout the book, I decided that a designer had to come up with something so complex and that evolution could not have come up with such a complex device. The author does mention how evolution is always seeking success, and it takes a long span of time. He remarks on p. 206 that "Evolution of a process results in mechanisms that would not have been designed by an engineer." Thus, the book is thought-provoking. The chapters on how cell malfunctions due to mutations, environmental factors, obesity, etc., lead to disease and death were also thought-provoking and revealing. I guess I indeed learned a few things even if the secrets of the cells are too complex for my less-than-average brain (I will keep rooting for God). This night-table book also had an advantage in putting me to sleep when other methods didn't work!
The final chapter on how the first cell might have originated was also interesting and very complex. Wolpert asserts that even though we don't currently understand that mystery of origins, it is "a mystery that will eventually be solved" (p. 215). He later suggests that a computer algorithm and computation will likely be the key to this riddle's answer.
He gives a brief paragraph to the faith of those who believe in God-as-designer and says that such faith gives "the advantage of not having to struggle with the difficult problem of how the cell evolved." He also states, "There is no evidence whatsoever for such a creator or designer." Throughout the book, I decided that a designer had to come up with something so complex and that evolution could not have come up with such a complex device. The author does mention how evolution is always seeking success, and it takes a long span of time. He remarks on p. 206 that "Evolution of a process results in mechanisms that would not have been designed by an engineer." Thus, the book is thought-provoking. The chapters on how cell malfunctions due to mutations, environmental factors, obesity, etc., lead to disease and death were also thought-provoking and revealing. I guess I indeed learned a few things even if the secrets of the cells are too complex for my less-than-average brain (I will keep rooting for God). This night-table book also had an advantage in putting me to sleep when other methods didn't work!
October 11, 2025
I loved my degree 🔬🧬🧫🧪👩🏼🔬
November 12, 2014
Wolpert's book isn't bad, but it's not a book that I was particularly in love with. I forced myself to read about 20 pages a day so that I could finish the book. It's not that I have trouble reading nonfiction, it's that I've read way too many biology books in my lifetime for college & high school that this felt like a 200+ page summary.
The book's language is quite easy to understand, given that you have the reading level of a 12th grader. The problem with this book is that it is not compelling or interesting. While you might think it's difficult to make a book on cells interesting, you'd be correct. Any of my old biology books are 10/10 the best books to read to get yourself to fall asleep, however, it doesn't mean you can't find a way to present the information in easy to understand & interesting concepts.
Except for a few tidbits, there's not much in the book that I read that I didn't already learn in my biology courses in college. However, for those that don't have the time or money to sit through hours of lectures, but are interested in knowing some basic things about cells, pick this book up. I don't think that this book would be easy to comprehend to someone who has never taken a science class before, but I'm sure some of the jabs at religious fanatics would be found amusing. This is not the perfect book to throw at a conservative who doesn't understand climate change or science, it's a book that's a good summary of how cells affect our lives.
I've found myself saying aloud, "GET TO THE DAMN POINT," many times. Wolpert is not a terrible writer, he's just not a particularly fascinating one. You know who is? Richard Dawkins. Call the man what you want, but he knows how to write compelling & fascinating descriptions on complex subjects like biology. I don't question Wolpert's expertise - nothing he wrote about particularly surprised me due to my science background, but it's just not interesting. I like biology. I find viruses, immunology, & microbiology incredibly fascinating, but this book was really dull.
The book's language is quite easy to understand, given that you have the reading level of a 12th grader. The problem with this book is that it is not compelling or interesting. While you might think it's difficult to make a book on cells interesting, you'd be correct. Any of my old biology books are 10/10 the best books to read to get yourself to fall asleep, however, it doesn't mean you can't find a way to present the information in easy to understand & interesting concepts.
Except for a few tidbits, there's not much in the book that I read that I didn't already learn in my biology courses in college. However, for those that don't have the time or money to sit through hours of lectures, but are interested in knowing some basic things about cells, pick this book up. I don't think that this book would be easy to comprehend to someone who has never taken a science class before, but I'm sure some of the jabs at religious fanatics would be found amusing. This is not the perfect book to throw at a conservative who doesn't understand climate change or science, it's a book that's a good summary of how cells affect our lives.
I've found myself saying aloud, "GET TO THE DAMN POINT," many times. Wolpert is not a terrible writer, he's just not a particularly fascinating one. You know who is? Richard Dawkins. Call the man what you want, but he knows how to write compelling & fascinating descriptions on complex subjects like biology. I don't question Wolpert's expertise - nothing he wrote about particularly surprised me due to my science background, but it's just not interesting. I like biology. I find viruses, immunology, & microbiology incredibly fascinating, but this book was really dull.
June 17, 2016
Rating: 3 stars out of 5
I remember picking up this book aged fifteen, thinking it would give me a philosophical insight into my life. I was wrong, but fortunately this book does give the reader insight into microbiology and how cells work.
I picked this book up properly and ended up completing it aged 20, whilst in my first year of university studying pharmacy. It was an interesting book, but not amazingly interesting, Some of the methods of explanation were tenuous and I remember finding this book slightly difficult to follow when I was fifteen years old, with only the knowledge of GCSE biology to help me out.
GCSE to A level biology gets a lot more complicated, and even more so once you're at university, so reading it aged 20 I had no problem understanding it. I would say, however, please think about picking up a textbook before delving into this book. There are no diagrams and everything is explained using words alone, which is not how to teach biology. Sure, you can describe how telomeres shorten, but how is anyone going to grasp where the telomeres are when you can't even describe the morphology of a chromosome?
The book starts with a basic history of medicine, starting with the Greeks and their belief that we had 4 "humours" and that disease was caused by an imbalance of one or more of them. Black bile, yellow bile, blood and phlegm were (according to the Greeks) these so called "humours". The book then goes on to describe how we now know better, thanks to the discoveries of Robert Hooke and the like. After the basic concepts are put in place, the bigger questions are asked; What makes us age? What causes cancer? What causes life?
I would recommend this book to anyone studying biology to a relatively advanced level, because once you're confused there is no turning back, sadly. You'll just drop the book and pick up something else.
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Want to read
October 3, 2009Off this review:
How We Live & Why We Die: The Secret Lives of Cells
By Lewis Wolpert (W.W. Norton & Co.)
Acclaimed developmental biologist Lewis Wolpert, author of Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast, traces life’s mysteries back to the level of cells in this engaging primer. Trained as an engineer, Wolpert brings to cell biology a clear organizational logic, and under such headings as “How We Live,” “How We Function,” and “How We Grow and Why We Age,” he describes how the cell is the basis of all we experience. Indeed, as Wolpert shows, concepts as broad as evolution can be understood using the cell as a starting point and charting the cell’s discovery reveals the greater shape of the history of science in this profound, yet eminently readable book.
How We Live & Why We Die: The Secret Lives of Cells
By Lewis Wolpert (W.W. Norton & Co.)
Acclaimed developmental biologist Lewis Wolpert, author of Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast, traces life’s mysteries back to the level of cells in this engaging primer. Trained as an engineer, Wolpert brings to cell biology a clear organizational logic, and under such headings as “How We Live,” “How We Function,” and “How We Grow and Why We Age,” he describes how the cell is the basis of all we experience. Indeed, as Wolpert shows, concepts as broad as evolution can be understood using the cell as a starting point and charting the cell’s discovery reveals the greater shape of the history of science in this profound, yet eminently readable book.
July 14, 2017
This was a pretty interesting book on cell biology. It's not too short that you don't learn enough, but not too long either that you lose interest. The explanations that Wolpert uses are quite simple and easy to understand, although I would have liked a couple of pictures or diagrams to facilitate understanding. Luckily, there are not many difficult scientific words in there - if there are, then it's immediately followed by a definition. Before picking up the book, I was afraid that I wouldn't understand much of it, but luckily, you only need a basic knowledge of biology to be able to read it. Of course, there were some chapters where I found myself overwhelmed with new information all at once, but what did I expect?
August 18, 2018
The Secret Life of Cells is a well written piece of popular science, everything is explained well and as concisely as possible. However, bell biology is extremely complex endeavour and there is only so far your working memory will take you; there are no visuals of any sort in this book that would have helped visualising the more complex machinery of the cell. However, a quick peruse of the relevant concepts on google would aid the reading of this book a lot.
July 7, 2017
Very boring. Felt like it was trying to be the Cell version of Emperor of All Maladies but failed to draw me in. Transitions between chapters and within chapters were very poor. Was hoping for a more exciting version of a cell biology textbook ended up with a cell biology textbook with no pictures and less explanation.
September 10, 2017
My Rating: 4.5
February 8, 2020
The Cell is something that for the last five years of my life has pushed me to seek information, knowledge and to change bad habits in my life.
It’s so mesmerizing to know how many activities of myself are due to them and so does everything with life that surrounds me, that I have an urge to keep looking for more.
Lewis Wolpert made an incredible, digestible book. That provides us with a fast and concrete tour through our bodies and the cells that build them.
Making use of an accesible, yet scientific language he portrays the marvels of these microscopical life forms and the value of their existence.
Viruses, bacterias and diseases are shown fast, but with a broad reach.
If you are into science or are getting new in the subject of cells and biology, you must give this book a chance to open your eyes and push you to seek for more.
It’s so mesmerizing to know how many activities of myself are due to them and so does everything with life that surrounds me, that I have an urge to keep looking for more.
Lewis Wolpert made an incredible, digestible book. That provides us with a fast and concrete tour through our bodies and the cells that build them.
Making use of an accesible, yet scientific language he portrays the marvels of these microscopical life forms and the value of their existence.
Viruses, bacterias and diseases are shown fast, but with a broad reach.
If you are into science or are getting new in the subject of cells and biology, you must give this book a chance to open your eyes and push you to seek for more.
December 18, 2024
This book is a wonderful explanation of cellular biology in a way that’s simplistic yet educational. The material is easy to follow and provides information that is built upon in upcoming chapters. Great read for if you’re interested in cell theories or cellular biology or just want to understand your body a bit better.
dnf_paused
July 25, 2025(August 2018) I didn't persevere with this, it drifted too far from easily digestible 'pop' science for my liking in 50+ pages, like an 'A' level course text, but without the primer module, diagrams or context. Wolpert dived straight into the cells structure and the role of proteins and enzyme without explaining about atoms and molecules. I got a bit lost TBH.
June 15, 2020
Good overview if you're looking to refresh the fundamentals of cell biology, but would be difficult to follow unless you already had an A-level biology qualification (or even first year undergraduate)
January 25, 2021
aswom bio
September 16, 2022
Overall very disappointing. Full of grammatical errors and very dry in some places (like notes from a textbook). Far too vague and very outdated (homophobic).
January 27, 2024
Kitabın baskısının kalmaması çok acı . Detaya girmemiş ama ilginç fikirleri var. Yeniden okumayı hak ediyor . 91 yaşında covid den vefat etmesi çok üzücü. RIP.
April 9, 2024
I wasn't able to finish this book due to the writing style and the lack of breaks of text in chapters. However, I did learn a few things about the body.
July 31, 2024
popüler bilim okumayı severim ama bu kitap bana biraz genel bilgilerin derlenmesi gibi hissettirdi. :(
February 7, 2020
Good for biologists only!
November 18, 2022
It's interesting that he mentions Dawkins towards the end, because he reminds me of Dawkins in this way: his smug nastiness makes me extremely annoyed to read opinions I basically agree with.
January 11, 2010
In fourteen chapters the book covers nearly every aspect and question relating to cells---what they are, how they live, how they develop, how they evolve, what can go wrong, and how people learned (and continue to learn even more of) these details. I read this book to review the subject matter in preparation for a physiology class.
The book is very informational but the text-only format may be a letdown to anyone brand new to the subject. I had plenty of remembered visuals from past classes and textbooks to help me through the sometimes complicated descriptions. It is clear and straightforward in its presentation of the material, and is worth the read if anyone has the interest and patience to stick to the text without any visual help. Nothing spectacular, but useful.
The book is very informational but the text-only format may be a letdown to anyone brand new to the subject. I had plenty of remembered visuals from past classes and textbooks to help me through the sometimes complicated descriptions. It is clear and straightforward in its presentation of the material, and is worth the read if anyone has the interest and patience to stick to the text without any visual help. Nothing spectacular, but useful.
August 24, 2014
Wolpert covers a lot of ground, and introduce development, growth, ageing, disorder and death. The introduction to embryonic development, was well written. I few unanswered questions about development were answered in layman's terms.
What could of been the most interesting section on dysfunction and ageing was dry, and too broad. I think he had focused on a couple of elements in cell death it would of been a stronger, and more engaging book.
I got a lot of enjoyment of this book, certainly in the earlier sections. However,I would be reluctant to recommend to a non-scientist, as the introduction of proteins, and enzymes was weak. I have always found the concept of proteins the most difficult concept to explain. But this could just be me!
What could of been the most interesting section on dysfunction and ageing was dry, and too broad. I think he had focused on a couple of elements in cell death it would of been a stronger, and more engaging book.
I got a lot of enjoyment of this book, certainly in the earlier sections. However,I would be reluctant to recommend to a non-scientist, as the introduction of proteins, and enzymes was weak. I have always found the concept of proteins the most difficult concept to explain. But this could just be me!
September 6, 2011
To be fair to the book, I knew about many of the topics covered in the book. It was rather blandly written, and seems to just be a regurgitation of all the facts Wolpert knew from the top of his brilliant head about various topics in cell biology. The book would have been much improved with some diagrams, and a little bit of romance in the writing. It was also rather loosely organized in structure, and probably could have done with some fact-checking. Still, there was a bit of material on aging and cancer I wasn't familiar with, which proved to be interesting.
January 5, 2024
I bought this book because I had to read it before the school year. But I couldn't even finish the thing.
I was really disappointed by the dry fact filling the first pages. It just kept going one after the other. Then there were many things that weren't even explained, or if they were, they were inaccurate. So I'd suggest finding one of the bigger atlases on cellular anatomy if you want to learn something. Don't waste your money or your time on this.
I was really disappointed by the dry fact filling the first pages. It just kept going one after the other. Then there were many things that weren't even explained, or if they were, they were inaccurate. So I'd suggest finding one of the bigger atlases on cellular anatomy if you want to learn something. Don't waste your money or your time on this.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews