Autorentext

Christian Sardet, PhD, is a founder of and emeritus researcher at the Developmental Biology Laboratory at the Institut de la Mer de Villefranche (IMEV), under the aegis of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and Paris-Sorbonne University. He earned his PhD in biochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of many scientific publications and of the book Plankton: Wonders of the Drifting World (University of Chicago Press, 2015) and is one of the founders of the Tara Oceans expedition. Sardet is the recipient of two prizes from the French Academy of Sciences and the Légion d'Honneur, among many other awards. He is also an artist and the creator of award-winning films. Sardet lives near Nice in the south of France.

Klappentext

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.

Inhalt

Foreword by Éric Karsenti

1. What Is Life?: Cells & Evolution
2. The Materials of Life: DNA, RNA, Proteins & Nanomachines
3. A Tale of Origins: From LUCA to Bacteria & Archaea
4. Life Becomes Complex: The Advent of Protists
5. From Unicellular to Multicellular: From Protists to Animals, Fungi, Plants & Algae
6. Viruses Bathe the Living World: Beneficial & Evil Manipulators
7. The Engines of Life: Energy & Metabolism
8. The Cell Cycle: Activation, Signaling & Splitting
9. Information & Heredity: From Genes to Proteins
10. Reproducing, Aging & Dying: And a Few Diseases

11. What Life Is All About: A Social Network of Cells

    Index

Image Credits

Glossary

About the Author