Jeremiah Yuda Umam

The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human

Book by Siddhartha Mukherjee

DETAILS

Publisher : Scribner; First Edition (October 25, 2022) Language : English Hardcover : 496 pages ISBN-10 : 1982117354 ISBN-13 : 978-1982117351 Item Weight : 1.68 pounds Dimensions : 6 x 1.4 x 9 inches Best Sellers Rank: #122 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #1 in History of Civilization & Culture #1 in History of Medicine (Books) #1 in Cell Biology (Books) , A New York Times Notable Book of 2022 and Goodreads Choice Awards 2022 Finalist! From the author of The Emperor of All Maladies , winner of the Pulitzer Prize, and The Gene , a #1 New York Times bestseller, comes his most spectacular book yet, an exploration of medicine and our radical new ability to manipulate cells. Rich with Mukherjee’s revelatory and exhilarating stories of scientists, doctors, and the patients whose lives may be saved by their work, The Song of the Cell is the third book in this extraordinary writer’s exploration of what it means to be human. Mukherjee begins this magnificent story in the late 1600s, when a distinguished English polymath, Robert Hooke, and an eccentric Dutch cloth-merchant, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek looked down their handmade microscopes. What they saw introduced a radical concept that swept through biology and medicine, touching virtually every aspect of the two sciences, and altering both forever. It was the fact that complex living organisms are assemblages of tiny, self-contained, self-regulating units. Our organs, our physiology, our selves—hearts, blood, brains—are built from these compartments. Hooke christened them “ cells ”. The discovery of cells—and the reframing of the human body as a cellular ecosystem—announced the birth of a new kind of medicine based on the therapeutic manipulations of cells. A hip fracture, a cardiac arrest, Alzheimer’s dementia, AIDS, pneumonia, lung cancer, kidney failure, arthritis, COVID pneumonia—all could be reconceived as the results of cells, or systems of cells, functioning abnormally. And all could be perceived as loci of cellular therapies. In The Song of the Cell , Mukherjee tells the story of how scientists discovered cells, began to understand them, and are now using that knowledge to create new humans. He seduces you with writing so vivid, lucid, and suspenseful that complex science becomes thrilling. Told in six parts, laced with Mukherjee’s own experience as a researcher, a doctor, and a prolific reader, The Song of the Cell is both panoramic and intimate—a masterpiece. Read more

REVIEW

Siddhartha Mukherjee is today’s Lewis Thomas. We are blessed to have such a wonderful biological storyteller. He makes complex physiological and medical topics seem so simple to understand. With “Song of the Cell” he takes the reader on a joyful journey of wonder and hope. The book is a tour de force of cellular biology beginning with the earliest discovery of cells and the invention of the microscope. He then explains the different organelles that make up human cells and their functions. The biology of cell division is covered along with how a human body is derived from a single cell. Along the way, each of the body’s major cell types are explored, ranging from cardiac, renal, and neural. I found myself reliving parts of the first two years of medical school as I read. The final sections of the book are dedicated to the marvels of stem cells, and the cancer cell—the selfish cell. Mukherjee goes into some detail about the origins of a cancer cell and potential future cures. Anyone with an interest in learning more about how their body functions and can dysfunction owes it to themselves to read this book. It is worthy of a second Pulitzer for Dr. Mukherjee.

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