From One Cell

Inside the quest to unlock the mysteries of development—and how this knowledge can transform our future

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Every animal on Earth begins life as a single cell. From this humble origin, the nascent creature embarks on a risky journey fraught with opportunities for disaster—yet with astounding regularity, it reaches its destination intact. From One Cell illuminates this epic transformation—still one of nature’s most mysterious feats—to show where we all come from and where we’re going.

Through the eyes of the scientists unraveling the secrets of development, we see how all the information needed to build a human fits into a fertilised egg, and how the trillions of cells that emerge know what to become and where to go. We learn how this growing understanding may one day allow us to address some of our most persistently confounding medical challenges, from cancer to degenerative disease. Popular science at its best, From One Cell celebrates the beauty and almost limitless potential of our collective beginnings.