From One Cell: A Journey into Life's Origins and the Future of Medicine

by Ben Stanger Narrated by Noah James Butler

Overview

Each of us began life as a single cell. From this humble origin, we embarked on a risky journey fraught with opportunities for disaster. Yet, amazingly, we reached our destination intact, emerging as dazzlingly complex, exquisitely engineered assemblages of trillions of cells. This metamorphosis constitutes one of nature's most spectacular yet commonplace magic tricks-and one of its most coveted secrets. In From One Cell, physician and researcher Ben Stanger offers a glimpse into what scientists are discovering about how life and the body take shape, and how these revelations stand to revolutionize medicine and the future of human health.



Stanger leads listeners on a gripping odyssey retracing this universal, yet unremembered, rite of passage. Through the eyes of the scientists unraveling development's riddles in experiments as painstaking as they are inventive, we confront fascinating puzzles: how does the plethora of different tissues that compose our bodies arise from a single source? How do cells know what they are meant to become-skin or bone, blood or muscle-when all carry the same set of genetic instructions? Once a cell starts developing down one path, can it change its mind, or is its destiny sealed? As Stanger shows us, the answers to these questions may at last empower us to solve some of our most persistently confounding medical challenges.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"Fascinating from beginning to end, Ben Stanger’s From One Cell takes us through the most important journey in all of our lives. Stanger is an enthusiastic and knowledgeable tour guide through the science that will impact our lives in the future."— Neil Shubin, paleontologist and author of Your Inner Fish

"[A] superb debut.… Readers will marvel at this stimulating and comprehensive deep dive."— Publishers Weekly, starred review

"From the scientific quest to understand how a minuscule fertilized egg becomes a whole person, a universe of human biology opens up, leading to big new ideas for medicine. An inspiring, masterful, and authoritative account of this vital scientific frontier?rendered in brilliant, beautiful prose?From One Cell is about you, your beginning, and your future."— Daniel M. Davis, author of The Beautiful Cure and The Secret Body

"Remarkably effective.… From One Cell is replete with fascinating stories."— Jonathan Shaw Harvard Magazine

"An authoritative account of a critical area of medical research and the promises it holds."— Kirkus Reviews

"Showing the erudition and leaps of imagination of a writer who is deeply immersed in both scientific research and the rich history of human culture, From One Cell is a pleasure to read?elegant, accessible, and endlessly exciting."— Robert A. Weinberg, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, author of The Biology of Cancer

"One of the great mysteries in all of science is how individual fertilized eggs transform into the beautiful, exceedingly complex forms of life we see in nature and in ourselves.… In this knowledge lie seeds that will someday bear fruit in revolutionizing human health. Lucid and engrossing, From One Cell is a wondrous journey into the marvel of how life develops and the future of regenerative medicine."— Cliff Tabin, professor and chair of genetics, Harvard Medical School

"From One Cell tells the remarkable story of the discoveries that have led to our current understanding of developmental biology, cellular reprogramming, cancer, and regenerative medicine. As a developmental biologist and medical geneticist myself, I picked up the book already familiar with many of these tales, but Stanger brings them and the scientists to such vivid life that I could hardly put it down. A fascinating read."— Tony Wynshaw-Boris, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine

"From One Cell marvels in some of the highlights of the field of developmental biology, a discipline whose significance touches so many other areas in the life sciences. A gifted writer, Ben Stanger describes how we came to be from a single cell, emphasizing the incredible good fortune behind each step in this process and employing wonderful metaphors to explain complex phenomena. If you’re even the tiniest bit interested in how all cells in our body came from a single cell, I highly recommend that you read this book."— William Anderson, director of education, Harvard Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology

Kirkus Reviews

2023-05-23
Cell research has the potential to unlock a new generation of treatments, according to a leader in the field.

Medical research is a series of small steps, each one building on the lessons learned before. This is the story that gastroenterologist Stanger, who combines cutting-edge research with clinical work, tells in this book. Embryos have long been recognized as the initial phase of life, but they raise the intriguing questions of how cells multiply, how they differentiate and coalesce to form organs, and how they eventually die. Through a series of biographical sketches, Stanger traces the gradual development of the knowledge base, including the unlocking of the connection between cells and genes. Ingenious experiments with frogs and flies provided an understanding of hereditary characteristics and mutations. Many of the breakthroughs came from strange places, such as studies of radiation poisoning, the structure of viruses, and the way that tumors grow. The discovery of DNA was a crucial step, and it paved the way for genetic engineering. Stanger has a particular interest in regenerative medicine, an emerging field that owes much to an understanding of embryo development. It uses cell-based procedures to repair damaged organs, potentially even spinal cords. There are also applications in the treatment of cancer and cognitive decline. The author also highlights important research into the development and transplantation of organs grown artificially. Stanger emphasizes that there is a long way to go, but the potential is huge. Due to the subject matter, parts of the book are complex and require a close reading, but there is a useful glossary of terms, and Stanger does his best to avoid jargon. Ultimately, the author delivers an informative package of how this field of medicine has developed and where it might be going.

An authoritative account of a critical area of medical research and the promises it holds.

2023 Athenaeum of Philadelphia Literary Award, Short-listed

Product Details

BN ID:	2940159486707
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	10/17/2023
Edition description:	Unabridged

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