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.