by Ben Stanger (Author)

Inside the quest to unlock the mysteries of development—and find the key to transforming our future.

Each of us began life as a single cell. From this humble origin, we embarked on a risky journey fraught with opportunities for disaster. Yet, amazingly, we reached our destination intact, emerging as dazzlingly complex, exquisitely engineered assemblages of trillions of cells. This metamorphosis constitutes one of nature’s most spectacular yet commonplace magic tricks—and one of its most coveted secrets. In From One Cell, physician and researcher Ben Stanger offers a breathtaking glimpse into what scientists are discovering about how life and the body take shape, and how these revelations stand to revolutionize medicine and the future of human health.

In vivid prose, Stanger leads readers on a gripping odyssey retracing this universal, yet unremembered, rite of passage. Through the eyes of the scientists unraveling development’s riddles in experiments as painstaking as they are inventive, we confront fascinating puzzles: how does the plethora of different tissues that compose our bodies arise from a single source? How do cells know what they are meant to become—skin or bone, blood or muscle—when all carry the same set of genetic instructions? Once a cell starts developing down one path, can it change its mind, or is its destiny irrevocably sealed?

As Stanger shows us, the answers to these questions may at last empower us to solve some of our most persistently confounding medical challenges, from cancer to cognitive decline to degenerative disease. Recognizing tumors as evil doppelgangers of the embryo points the way toward new, more targeted cancer therapies. Learning how cells choose their identities and find their way in space could unlock lifesaving breakthroughs in regenerative medicine. The possibilities are extraordinary.

Popular science at its best, From One Cell celebrates the power and beauty of understanding our collective beginnings.

Review

"Fascinating from beginning to end, Ben Stanger’s From One Cell takes us through the most important journey in all of our lives. Stanger is an enthusiastic and knowledgeable tour guide through the science that will impact our lives in the future."

― Neil Shubin, paleontologist and author of Your Inner Fish

"From the scientific quest to understand how a minuscule fertilized egg becomes a whole person, a universe of human biology opens up, leading to big new ideas for medicine. An inspiring, masterful, and authoritative account of this vital scientific frontier―rendered in brilliant, beautiful prose―From One Cell is about you, your beginning, and your future."

― Daniel M. Davis, author of The Beautiful Cure and The Secret Body

"Showing the erudition and leaps of imagination of a writer who is deeply immersed in both scientific research and the rich history of human culture, From One Cell is a pleasure to read―elegant, accessible, and endlessly exciting."

― Robert A. Weinberg, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, author of The Biology of Cancer

"One of the great mysteries in all of science is how individual fertilized eggs transform into the beautiful, exceedingly complex forms of life we see in nature and in ourselves.… In this knowledge lie seeds that will someday bear fruit in revolutionizing human health. Lucid and engrossing, From One Cell is a wondrous journey into the marvel of how life develops and the future of regenerative medicine."

― Cliff Tabin, professor and chair of genetics, Harvard Medical School

"From One Cell tells the remarkable story of the discoveries that have led to our current understanding of developmental biology, cellular reprogramming, cancer, and regenerative medicine. As a developmental biologist and medical geneticist myself, I picked up the book already familiar with many of these tales, but Stanger brings them and the scientists to such vivid life that I could hardly put it down. A fascinating read."

― Tony Wynshaw-Boris, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine

Categroies : Developmental Biology, Embryology, Microbiology

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0BHPSMR3V

Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company (August 8, 2023)

Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 8, 2023

Language ‏ : ‎ English

File‏ : ‎EPUB, 24.65 MB

Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled

Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported

Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled

Print length ‏ : ‎ 365 pages