Rating: 3 stars out of 5
I remember picking up this book aged fifteen, thinking it would give me a philosophical insight into my life. I was wrong, but fortunately this book does give the reader insight into microbiology and how cells work.
I picked this book up properly and ended up completing it aged 20, whilst in my first year of university studying pharmacy. It was an interesting book, but not amazingly interesting, Some of the methods of explanation were tenuous and I remember finding this book slightly difficult to follow when I was fifteen years old, with only the knowledge of GCSE biology to help me out.
GCSE to A level biology gets a lot more complicated, and even more so once you're at university, so reading it aged 20 I had no problem understanding it. I would say, however, please think about picking up a textbook before delving into this book. There are no diagrams and everything is explained using words alone, which is not how to teach biology. Sure, you can describe how telomeres shorten, but how is anyone going to grasp where the telomeres are when you can't even describe the morphology of a chromosome?
The book starts with a basic history of medicine, starting with the Greeks and their belief that we had 4 "humours" and that disease was caused by an imbalance of one or more of them. Black bile, yellow bile, blood and phlegm were (according to the Greeks) these so called "humours". The book then goes on to describe how we now know better, thanks to the discoveries of Robert Hooke and the like. After the basic concepts are put in place, the bigger questions are asked; What makes us age? What causes cancer? What causes life?
I would recommend this book to anyone studying biology to a relatively advanced level, because once you're confused there is no turning back, sadly. You'll just drop the book and pick up something else.
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