Blueprint for a Cell: The Nature and Origin of Life

by Christian de Duve

In narrative form the author, winner of the Nobel Prize, delineates the "blueprint" of life - the pattern of chemical events on which all life depends - and demonstrates unity in the diversity of life on earth. De Duve begins by defining the basic characteristics of life (the "blueprint") and explains the fundamental chemical strategies that allow cells to live. Next he tracks the evolutionary stages in the development of cells, describing his personal view of the very first cell, the precursor to all of life on earth. He then goes back to prebiotic times and traces the chemical and environmental processes that led to the origin of life and, eventually, to the first cell. De Duve, in his final chapter, rises above scientific detail to explore the philosophical question of whether life happened by chance or necessity. In de Duve's view, given the nature of the universe, no miracles are needed, and no luck either. Life is an intrinsic part of the universe - an inevitable manifestation of the combinatorial properties of matter. As de Duve himself says, "In spite of the advances of biology, many of us continue to be influenced in our thinking by the writings of certain physicists and cosmologists and to view the universe as an 'unfeeling immensity' and life as something separate, not included in the fundamental properties that cause elementary particles to coalesce into atomic nuclei, nuclei to surround themselves with electrons, and atoms and ions to join into a multitude of molecules, crystals, and other structures. This view in the view of the author is wrong, a remnant of vitalism. Life is an intrinsic part of the universe. Wherever and whenever conditions are favorable, as they were here on Earth, and probably were, are, or will be elsewhere, the universe cannot but blossom into life".

275 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Christian de Duve (1917-2013) was a Belgian scientist and author. He discovered the cellular components called lysosomes and peroxisomes and researched insulin and glucagon. He was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1974 with Albert Claude and George E. Palade "for their discoveries concerning the structural and functional organization of the cell".

Born outside of Belgium, de Duve and his family returned to Belgium when the First World War ended, having fled the country for this reason.

He started studying medicine in 1934 at the Catholic University of Leuven and graduated in 1941. Being a gifted student, he started working in the laboratory of professor J.P. Bouckaert who was trying to uncover the mechanism of action of insulin. Believing the answer could be found in biochemistry, de Duve started studying chemistry and graduated in 1946. He was awarded a doctorate in 1945 for his doctoral thesis "Glucose, Insuline et Diabète".

He became a professor at the Catholic University of Leuven in 1951 and later at the Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL). He started working at the Rockefeller Institute (now Rockefeller University) in 1962 dividing his time between Belgium and the United States. He also worked at the Medical Nobel Institute in Sweden and the University of Washington, USA. He founded the International Institute of Cellular and Molecular Pathology (now known as the de Duve Institute) in Brussels in 1974. He became emeritus professor in Belgium in 1985 and in New York in 1988. He wrote several books on the origin of life and biology.