The renowned biologist Paul Nurse has spent his career revealing how living cells work. In What Is Life?, he takes up the challenge of describing what it means to be alive in a way that every reader can understand.

It is a shared journey of discovery; step-by-step Nurse illuminates five great ideas that underpin biology--the Cell, the Gene, Evolution by Natural Selection, Life as Chemistry, and Life as Information. He introduces the scientists who made the most important advances, and, using his personal experiences in and out of the lab, he shares with us the challenges, the lucky breaks, and the thrilling eureka moments of discovery.

Nurse writes with delight at life's richness and with a sense of the urgent role of biology in our time. To survive the challenges that face us all today--climate change, pandemic, loss of biodiversity and food security--it is vital that we all understand what life is.

Author: Paul Nurse
Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 02/02/2021
Pages: 160
Weight: 0.6lbs
Size: 8.60h x 5.70w x 0.70d
ISBN: 9780393541151


Review Citation(s):
Library Journal Prepub Alert 09/01/2020 pg. 45
Publishers Weekly 11/23/2020
Booklist 12/01/2020 pg. 20

About the Author
Nurse, Paul: - Sir Paul Nurse is director of the Francis Crick Institute in London. He previously served as president of Rockefeller University, president of the Royal Society, and trustee of the British Museum. He is a recipient of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.