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The Song of the Cell cover art

The Song of the Cell

By: Siddhartha Mukherjee
Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris
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Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

From the author of The Emperor of All Maladies, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, and The Gene, a number one New York Times best seller, comes his most spectacular book yet, about the fundamental unit of life. 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.

In the late 1600s, a distinguished English polymath, Robert Hooke, and an eccentric Dutch cloth-merchant, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, look down their hand-made microscopes. What they see introduces a radical concept that sweeps through biology and medicine, touching virtually every aspect of the two sciences and altering both forever. It is 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 christens 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 re-conceived 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 listeners 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.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2022 Siddhartha Mukherjee (P)2022 Penguin Audio

What listeners say about The Song of the Cell

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    3 out of 5 stars

Not as satisfying

Really loved first 2 books. This book seemed bitty. No clear storyline to follow and so felt like study book chapters. Also a lot of topics are covered and hence I felt each subject seemed superficially glossed over. I have a background in biology and medicine so may be just me, but even with this background i really enjoyed first 2 books and found a lot of learning/thinking material in them..

The very last chapter was the only chapter when felt excited with his insights. Otherwise run of the mill book.

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A fascinating meditation on life science

Siddartha Mukherjee writes with great skill and subtlety. He illuminates the complexity of cell biology with poetry, metaphors and analogies but brings a sensitivity and humanity to the subject too. The reader isn’t ideal for me. I don’t find his American accent easy on the ear and he often mispronounces non English names and words. It different reader would make it perfect.

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Enchanting- a remarkable journey through some of the most fascinating science

I had high expectations based on his previous two works and this did not disappoint. Incredible.

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Satisfying and fascinating

I studied cell biology as an undergraduate many years ago. Life has since taken me in a totally different direction. This book provided a satisfying and fascinating overview and update of the field as it is today.

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Fascinating

Beautifully written and the process of discovery so well documented. I can see why this book was up for an awards.

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So basically there's a lot we still don't know

From time to time I try books on subjects I'm not that familiar with. The last time I paid any attention to biology was for my GCSEs almost 30 years ago, so this certainly should have counted.

Yet oddly - especially oddly considering how many advances have apparently been made in cell biology in the last few decades - much of this was vaguely familiar. I mean, not the details, obviously - although I think I somehow got an A in biology my memory's still terrible and I kept having to look up what various technical terms meant. But the broad impression I've been left with is that I kinda knew most of this.

This impression is compounded by the fact that the key takeaway is that there's still a vast amount we don't know about how cells - and organisms more broadly - actually function. The title of the book itself is an allusion to a story towards the end about "the song of the forest" - a traditional belief from somewhere (I forget) about the way the individual leaves, plants, insects, birds, animals and all the rest somehow operate in harmony. The point being that we have no idea about the song of the cell - how it works in concert with other cells within the broader organism, or even (in the case of cancer in particular) within its own limited bounds.

Which means this ends up being a book that goes on at great length, some detail, and with multiple (often affecting, emotional) personal anecdotes only to conclude that we don't really know much at all. Fine as inspiration for the next generation of cell biologists, keen to solve some of these mysteries. Frustrating as a general reader.

The narrator did an OK job, but somehow after several hours his accent began to grate. Probably mostly because he's American and I'm a Brit.

In short, all my issues with this audiobook are probably more due to me than it.

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Great content bit wondering

Very important topics are well covered. Sometimes the personal stories go on a bit. Summaries per chapter are needed.

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Fascinating

As a medical student, anatomy, physiology and pathophysiology are learned about in abstract. This book helps pull all the information together and give an overall understanding of how the ‘parts’ fit and work together. Excellent listen.

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What an opus

I work in biology, after a 10yr career break I thought this would be a good listen. To revise and catch up with the world of cell biology.

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  • KT
  • 03-08-23

Flowing, fascinating book.

Beautiful, informative book written with an ebb and flow, vignettes of autobiography weaving the scientific information and knitting the whole together. Most enjoyable listen and the added pdf is an excellent resource.

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