![]() ![]() Mukherjee’s distinctive style features compelling anecdotes and human stories that animate the scientific (and unscientific) processes that have led to our current state of understanding. This includes the immune system, the heart, the brain, and so on. ![]() ![]() ![]() Mukherjee uses the bulk of the book to elucidate key cell types in the human body, along with their “connective relationships” that enable key organs and organ systems to function. The slightest rearrangement of sick cells might be the path toward alleviating suffering for the organism: eroding the cell walls of a bacterium while sparing our human cells inventing a medium that coaxes sperm and egg to dance into cellular union for in vitro fertilization (IVF) designing molecular missiles that home to the receptors decorating the exterior of cancer cells teaching adult skin cells to remember their embryonic state for regenerative medicines. The Song of the Cell begins with the discovery of cells and of germ theory, featuring characters such as Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch, who brought the cell “into intimate contact with pathology and medicine.” This intercourse would transform biomedicine, leading to the insight that we can treat disease by thinking at the cellular level. ![]()
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