Life moves quickly. So this summer, slow down and do a deep, luxurious dive into books about the science of life that explore areas too complex for rapid-fire headlines. From the immune system to the broader hows and whys of biology, from learning how to best protect your future health to connecting with microscopic marvels through colouring, it’s time well spent.
Staring at the immune system
Since the pandemic started, Covid-19 has turned an intense public spotlight on the immune system. And the immune system is mightily complex. Recent decades of scientific research have uncovered mind-boggling aspects of how this marvellous biological machine looks for, discovers and deals with trouble brewing in the body, taking on everything from cuts to coronaviruses to cancer.
Trying to grasp the entirety of the immune system and all its dynamic and interconnecting parts can feel like the intellectual equivalent of staring directly at the sun – at least to me, anyway – so it was with some trepidation that I started reading Immune: A Journey into the Mysterious System That Keeps You Alive, by Philipp Dettmer. But, to my relief, his approach is akin to one of those safe viewers that let you enjoy watching a solar eclipse without burning your retinas.
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Dettmer, who is the founder and head writer of the YouTube channel Kurzgesagt, uses insightful and sometimes witty descriptions as he breaks immune processes down into more manageable slivers by walking us through the steps of specific challenges to the body.
Throughout the book he maintains a sense of awe at the sheer adaptability and scale of the immune system, the damage it can unleash if it decides that our own tissues are to be done away with and the potential for modern medicine to harness immune power to address illness.
Life with purpose
In his book What is Life?: Five Great Ideas in Biology, Paul Nurse also takes us on a broad journey into the machinations of living things.
Nurse, who won a Nobel Prize in 2001 for the discovery of key regulators of how cells grow and divide, first became fascinated with biology when, as a young adolescent, he saw a butterfly flutter across the garden from one fence to another. The wonder and curiosity that it inspired continues to float through the chapters of this book as he focuses on genes, cells, evolution by natural selection, life as chemistry and life as information.
Nurse weaves in stories from his personal life – including a surprise he discovered about his own genetics – and a career in science that started with yeast cells and helped to transform our understanding of how cell growth and reproduction are controlled.
His book deftly brings together physics, chemistry and philosophy through the prism of biology, discussing the purpose of living organisms as well as the urgency of understanding biology in the face of enormous issues such as climate change, biodiversity loss and food security.
Purpose for a long life
In her book Age Proof: The New Science of Living a Longer and Healthier Life, Prof Rose Anne Kenny from Trinity College Dublin also tags the importance of purpose, describing how having a ‘why’ is associated with a longer and healthier life.
Drawing on decades of experience as a clinician working with older people (please avoid the term ‘the elderly’; Kenny is crystal clear that language matters), she cites research studies and new developments in the science of human ageing.
She outlines the benefits not only of having a purpose but also of a positive attitude towards ageing (at personal and societal levels), of laughter, friendship and sleep, of what and when we eat and of exercise, intimacy and downtime. And if you think you are too young for this book, you may find the sections on chronological versus biological ageing a timely call to get into gear now, to better safeguard your health and vitality in the coming years and decades.
Colouring with purpose
Whatever your age, if you want to learn about biology in a calming and creative way then break out the colouring pencils and jump into Microscopic Marvels by Jennifer Delaney. A majestic collection of viruses, tiny organisms and cells, Delaney’s aim with the book is to communicate the beauty of the microscopic world. “Each illustration is drawn with scientific accuracy to highlight their structure and function and decorated to create a calm and enjoyable celebration of small science for people of all ages to enjoy,” she says.
