What Is Life?

November 23, 2020
Nobel Prize–winning geneticist Nurse takes a look at what makes up life in this eloquent introduction to biology. Nurse begins at the level of the cell, then works through genetics and natural selection, building toward descriptions of “life as chemistry” and “life as information.” Along the way, he describes cell theory (the idea that “everything that is alive on the planet is either a cell or made up from a collection of cells”), Gregor Mendel’s 19th-century experiments in plant breeding that led to the modern understanding of genetics, and how gene regulation allows for different life stages (a “formless embryo” growing into a “fully formed human being,” for example). Nurse’s love for the scientific method is evident throughout, as in his writing on Mendel’s research (no “plant breeders before him had taken such a rigorous, extensive quantitative approach”) and his enthusiastic explanations of his own laboratory work (“I cannot stress enough how satisfying it was to work all this out,” he writes). Though the penultimate chapter, “Changing the World,” feels out of place, as it switches from eloquent explanations to a more confrontational tone, Nurse has a knack for presenting biological ideas in precise, accessible language. Anyone wondering how life works would do well to pick this up.

December 1, 2020
For centuries, philosophers and scientists have pondered the most fundamental question of all, What is life? It may come as a surprise that there's still no standard, consensus definition. Nurse, winner of a 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, asks, ""What does it really mean to be alive?"", then seeks answers within a framework of molecular biology, specifically the five unifying concepts of the cell, the gene, evolution, chemistry, and information-processing. He concludes that three essential principles delineate life: living things must exist as bounded physical entities and as physical, chemical, and informational mechanisms and possess the capability to evolve via natural selection. Most of Nurse's book, therefore, serves as an easy-to-understand introduction to cellular biology. Nurse illuminates the expected--DNA's double-helical structure, random genetic mutations, enzymes, mitochondria, photosynthesis, and feedback loops--and ventures into the surprising. For example, while humans have 46 chromosomes in each cell, the cells of the Atlas blue butterfly contain over 400 chromosomes. An amiable book about scientific discovery and wonder, controlling chaos in biological systems, and the underlying connectedness of all life on Earth.

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