Damn, sometimes you come across an author who’s skill you envy so much that it hurts. Siddhartha Mukherjee is abosolutly one of these. I wish I could communicate the intracies of biology in the way Mukherjee does, while keeping it both interesting and easy to digest. I sometimes struggle to do this in person, but in writing? It’s a daunting task.
Both of Mukherjee’s previous books— The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer; and The Gene: An Intimate History—are both excellent books, that followed somewhat linear narratives. The Gene was also more personal, as it additionally dipped into the history of Mukherjee’s family. The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human, is, delightfully, the most chatty of them all, while giving a broad overview of the subject.
For the biological side, Song of the Cell focuses most on cell theory and evolutionary theory. Because the former cannot be discussed without the latter. (And as Dobzhansky would argue, nothing in biology can.) As cell biology is so complex, there are many dicoveries or events that could be used to start a discussion on the topic. Mukherjee picks a dinner party in Berlin in 1837, where zoologist Theodor Schwann and Botanist Matthias Schleiden noted that both animals and plants were made up of cells, and that animal cells and plant cells were not that drastically different. Following the prelude, we are introuded to the first of many clinical cases. Mukherjee’s friend Sam P has been diagnosed with a malignant melanoma, and it is proving to be a very tough customer.
Afterwards, the book is broken into a number of sections: Discovery, The One and the Many, Blood, Knowledge, Organs and Rebirth. Each deals with an aspect of cell biology—and their own set of clinical cases that link to them
The forst section, The Discovery starts with what I can only describe as a love letter to German biologist Rudolf Virchow, who played an intergral in cell theory by determining that all cells must arise from other cells. While he was not person who discovered cells—that would be Robert Hooke and Antonie van Leeuwenhoek—his role was very important, and the work of Virchow acts like the glue that holds the pieces together, and you’ll see him pop up time and time again in other parts of the book. Others may have discovered cells—but with the discovery of cells came cell pathology, and Virchow’s role here cannot be denied.
Other sections are similar. A discussion on cell development leads to stories of IVF and CRISPR based gene tampering. A discussion on blood cells leads through to the topics of immunology and related therepies. Renewal and repair leads—inevitably—to cancer. There is even a section on the Covid-19 pandemic, which was occuring when when the book was being written.
It’s quite a task to gather all these subjects together and turn them into a cohesive book, but Mukherjee manages it. He also has a talent of using clever metaphors to describe how certain process work, to make them more digestable to a broad audiance. I had a hell of lot of fun with these, I’m not going to lie. I think my favorite, in discribing a glial cell, was “a film-star’s assistant stuck perpetually in the shadows of celebrity.” Mukherjee then informs us that the name glial is drawn from the Greek word for glue, demonstrating that these poor cells have not had the respect that they are perhaps deserving of for a large proportion of their known exsistance.
That being said though, because the book is so broad, if you’ve come in wanting a real detailed review of your own pet subject, niggling scientific or philosophical dispute or your favorite part of history, you may not have as much space allocated to that particular aspect as you would have liked. For me, I would have prefered more discussion on bacteria and archea, but oh well. I have to remind myself that this is not something written for a specialised audience, but a broad one. I was thankful however, that a measured approach was used to write about the ethical disputes that the author did give space to.
All that being said though, Song of the Cell was an absolute delight to read, just like its predecessors. I only wish I had an ounce of the writing skill thats on display here.
For the Passport Challenge This is a different genre: Non-fiction (Science)
