The Dance of Life
Symmetry, Cells and How We Become Human
Published on 28. January 2021
Book
Paperback/Softback
304 pages
978-0-7535-5295-7 (ISBN)
Description
'Quite simply the best book about science and life that I have ever read' - Alice Roberts
How does life begin? What drives a newly fertilized egg to keep dividing and growing until it becomes 40 trillion cells, a greater number than stars in the galaxy? How do these cells know how to make a human, from lips to heart to toes? How does your body build itself?
Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz was pregnant at 42 when a routine genetic test came back with that dreaded word: abnormal. A quarter of sampled cells contained abnormalities and she was warned her baby had an increased risk of being miscarried or born with birth defects. Six months later she gave birth to a healthy baby boy and her research on mice embryos went on to prove that - as she had suspected - the embryo has an amazing and previously unknown ability to correct abnormal cells at an early stage of its development.
The Dance of Life will take you inside the incredible world of life just as it begins and reveal the wonder of the earliest and most profound moments in how we become human. Through Magda's trailblazing research as a professor at Cambridge - where she has doubled the survival time of human embryos in the laboratory, and made the first artificial embryo-like structures from stem cells - you'll discover how early life is programmed to repair and organise itself, what this means for the future of pregnancy, and how we might one day solve IVF disorders, prevent miscarriages and learn more about the dance of life as it starts to take shape.
The Dance of Life is a moving celebration of the balletic beauty of life's beginnings.
How does life begin? What drives a newly fertilized egg to keep dividing and growing until it becomes 40 trillion cells, a greater number than stars in the galaxy? How do these cells know how to make a human, from lips to heart to toes? How does your body build itself?
Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz was pregnant at 42 when a routine genetic test came back with that dreaded word: abnormal. A quarter of sampled cells contained abnormalities and she was warned her baby had an increased risk of being miscarried or born with birth defects. Six months later she gave birth to a healthy baby boy and her research on mice embryos went on to prove that - as she had suspected - the embryo has an amazing and previously unknown ability to correct abnormal cells at an early stage of its development.
The Dance of Life will take you inside the incredible world of life just as it begins and reveal the wonder of the earliest and most profound moments in how we become human. Through Magda's trailblazing research as a professor at Cambridge - where she has doubled the survival time of human embryos in the laboratory, and made the first artificial embryo-like structures from stem cells - you'll discover how early life is programmed to repair and organise itself, what this means for the future of pregnancy, and how we might one day solve IVF disorders, prevent miscarriages and learn more about the dance of life as it starts to take shape.
The Dance of Life is a moving celebration of the balletic beauty of life's beginnings.
Reviews / Votes
One of the World's Top 10 Thinkers of 2020 -- Prospect Quite simply the best book about science and life that I have ever read * Alice Roberts * How an entire human can emerge from a single cell is one of the great mysteries of life. This book is a wonderful exposition of that amazingly complicated process, and combines Zernicka-Goetz's research and expert perspective with the clear and engaging narrative that is a hallmark of Highfield's science writing * Venki Ramakrishnan, President of the Royal Society and Nobel-prize winning scientist * A touching, detailed portrait of a life in science. Beautifully written, it's a reminder that scientists are human and their humanity affects every part of their work * Angela Saini, bestselling author of INFERIOR and SUPERIOR * How does a single fertilised egg know how to develop into the trillions of different cells that making up a human? This book provides you with much more than the answer - it is story-telling at its very best. Together with Highfield, Zernicka-Goetz leads us through her life scientific, intertwining the exciting field of 21st biology with a joyous personal journey of discovery at the cutting edge of research * Jim Al-Khalili * Part memoir, part mission to touch creation itself, The Dance of Life is a candid & gripping odyssey into one of the greatest microscopic scientific mysteries of all - the cellular divisions that spawn human life * Samira Ahmed * A vivid first-hand account of epic technological changes and revelations [and] also a personal tale of an ongoing scientific odyssey, replete with failure, exhaustion and tenacity as much as thrilling new vistas... this honest and passionate depiction of the complexity of science as a vocation will have wide appeal * Nature * Few books succeed as well as this in taking a complex area of rapidly advancing science, and turning it into a compelling human story. Rarely will you read such an intimate and personal account of scientific discovery * Evan Davis * The question of how a gorgeous baby develops from an inanimate, post-coital speck has fascinated humans from the year dot. Highfield and Zernicka-Goetz illuminate this apparent miracle in an entertaining narrative full of scientific insights, human interest and thoughtful reflection * Graham Farmelo, winner of the Costa Biography Prize for THE STRANGEST MAN and official biographer of Stephen Hawking * An in-depth journey through the world of the research embryologist...The story has a memoir-like atmosphere, especially when Zernicka-Goetz turns to episodes of her life. But she is never far from the science...Meaty and entertaining * Kirkus Reviews *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Ebury Publishing
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 195 mm
Width: 125 mm
Thickness: 27 mm
Weight
208 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7535-5295-7 (9780753552957)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
02/2020
1st Edition
Virgin Digital
€11.99
Available for download
Persons
Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz (Author)
Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz moved to Cambridge 23 years ago from Poland, and is now a professor at the University of Cambridge, where she runs a laboratory and leads a team of 17 postdoctoral scientists and graduate students. She is also a Wellcome Trust Fellow and Visiting Professor at Caltech. She has published more than 120 papers, lectured all over the world and received numerous awards and honours. Her work on embryos won the people's vote for scientific breakthrough of the year in Science magazine.
Roger Highfield (Author)
Roger Highfield is an author, journalist, broadcaster, and Science Director at the Science Museum Group. He is a member of the Medical Research Council and Visiting Professor of Public Engagement at the University of Oxford and University College London. Prior to his work at the Science Museum Group, he was the editor of New Scientist and the science editor of the Daily Telegraph. He has written or co-authored eight popular science books, and edited J. Craig Venter's autobiography,A Life Decoded (Allen Lane/Viking, 2007), which was shortlisted for the Royal Society's Science Book Prize.
Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz moved to Cambridge 23 years ago from Poland, and is now a professor at the University of Cambridge, where she runs a laboratory and leads a team of 17 postdoctoral scientists and graduate students. She is also a Wellcome Trust Fellow and Visiting Professor at Caltech. She has published more than 120 papers, lectured all over the world and received numerous awards and honours. Her work on embryos won the people's vote for scientific breakthrough of the year in Science magazine.
Roger Highfield (Author)
Roger Highfield is an author, journalist, broadcaster, and Science Director at the Science Museum Group. He is a member of the Medical Research Council and Visiting Professor of Public Engagement at the University of Oxford and University College London. Prior to his work at the Science Museum Group, he was the editor of New Scientist and the science editor of the Daily Telegraph. He has written or co-authored eight popular science books, and edited J. Craig Venter's autobiography,A Life Decoded (Allen Lane/Viking, 2007), which was shortlisted for the Royal Society's Science Book Prize.