The Song of the Cell. By Siddhartha Mukherjee. Scribner; 496 pages; $26.99. Bodley Head; £22
A tour d’horizon of cell theory, by a clinical oncologist and professor of that subject at Columbia University.
Cases from the author’s own career illustrate the results of both cellular understanding and the lack of it. The result is part history lesson, part biology lesson and part reminder of how science itself actually proceeds.