"Pasteur," Brian Ford believes, "did us all a great
disservice." His germ theory of disease bequeathed to us a fear of
microbes, and consequently an aversion to unicellular life. This aversion
is only heightened by those biologists for whom the cell is merely a dumb
vehicle for selfish DNA.
In a book whose title badly belies its true subject, cells themselves
are, Ford says, "living entities with minds of their own"; not a mere
information packet, the living cell is revealed as the fundamental,
pluripotent agent of life on earth. "I want to show that we can understand
ourselves only as manifestations of the cells of which we are composed,"
Ford writes. "Everything we do is a reflection of the separate cells whose
choreographed interactions make us what we are."
Ford's fascinating account ranges from the (occasionally literally)
explosive biochemistry of human life to the myriad microbial populations
vital to our well-being. Ford strips modern genetics of its fearsome
millennialist mask. Genetics has a long history--even a prehistory--and
the changes ushered in through modern techniques, while they should not be
minimized or ignored, are only a tiny part of the whole story.
Ford's concluding speculations, applying the lessons of cellular
behavior to individuals and even human societies, open up exciting
possibilities for further research while treating the casual reader to an
engaging, distinctly acerbic account of human nature. --Simon Ings,
Amazon.co.uk
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