Cells

“A vibrant exploration of the history of life and how it works at the most basic level.” – Kirkus Reviews
“A dazzling illustrated overview of the origin and evolution of living things, from the first protocells to complex multicellular organisms… . informative and entertaining.” – Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Award-winning French scientist Sardet takes readers through the history of how we came to understand cells as the basis of all living things and even explains the interesting origin of the term ‘cell’… the story flows plainly and effortlessly. Sardet’s hand-drawn illustrations are easy to understand, almost telling the story on their own.” – Library Journal, starred review
“Magnificent … I am amazed by the scope of Cells. This book offers much pleasure and illumination to its readers.” – Tim Hunt, PhD, Nobel Prize–winning biochemist
“The origin of science is in drawings. Among our best biologists—the E. B. Wilsons and E. G. Conklins of the world—have been many amazing artists capable of linking eye to pen to the reader’s mind. Now, Christian Sardet—a research scientist and originator in his field—retells the story of the cell with an artist’s eye. Cells is transformative, and a joy to read!” – Gary Wessel, PhD, professor of biology, Brown University
“Cells is both informative and beautiful.” – Andrew H. Knoll, PhD, professor emeritus, Harvard University, and author of A Brief History of Earth
“I am loving Cells—it should become a textbook for all students of life.” – Ted Inoue, founder of Synth: The Journal of Synthetic Sentience
“By blending scientific history, storytelling, and vivid hand-drawn imagery, Sardet invites readers to see cells not simply as microscopic structures, but as dynamic living systems that connect all forms of life.” – The Scientist
“Christian has masterfully combined art, the most recent scientific knowledge, and ease of understanding… . [Cells] allows us to follow the odyssey of life with real pleasure.” – from the foreword by Eric Karsenti
“Praise for the French Edition”Whether [you’re] passionate about biology or a novice, one enters this book as if opening a treasure chest.” – Pour La Science / Scientific American (France)
“Christian Sardet has masterfully combined the beauty of art with the rigor of science.” – Le Monde
“Vibrant words and drawings … Even if you didn’t love biology courses, this book reads like a novel with unexpected and captivating episodes.” – L’Obs

Christian Sardet, PhD, is a founder of and emeritus researcher at the Developmental Biology Laboratory at the Institut de la Mer de Villefranche (IMEV), under the aegis of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and Paris-Sorbonne University. He earned his PhD in biochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of many scientific publications and of the book Plankton: Wonders of the Drifting World (University of Chicago Press, 2015) and is one of the founders of the Tara Oceans expedition. Sardet is the recipient of two prizes from the French Academy of Sciences and the Légion d’Honneur, among many other awards. He is also an artist and the creator of award-winning films. Sardet lives near Nice in the south of France.

Eric Karsenti holds a PhD in immunology and cell biology from the Pasteur Institute in Paris. After working as a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Marc Kirschner’s laboratory at UCSF, he went on to establish his own group at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, which made significant contributions to our understanding of the cell-cycle clock, mitotic spindle assembly, and cell morphogenesis. At EMBL, he established the Cell Biology and Biophysics unit, an interdisciplinary team of cell biologists, geneticists, physicists, and imaging developers. He created the Tara Oceans program, which began as an around-the-world expedition to map the plankton ecosystem to a depth of 1000 meters, and directed the Tara Oceans Consortium until 2021. Karsenti is emeritus research director at the CNRS, visiting senior scientist at EMBL, and a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization, the French Academy of Sciences, and the board of the Tara Oceans foundation.

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