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The Way of the Cell: Molecules, Organisms, and the Order of Life: Molecules, Organisms and the Order of Life
What is life? Fifty years after physicist Erwin Schrodinger posed this question in his celebrated and inspiring book, the answer remains elusive. In The Way of the Cell, one of the world's most respected microbiologists draws on his wide knowledge of contemporary science to provide fresh insight into this intriguing and all-important question. What is the relationship of living things to the inanimate realm of chemistry and physics? How do lifeless but special chemicals come together to form those intricate dynamic ensembles that we recognize as life? To shed light on these questions, Franklin Harold focuses here on microorganisms--in particular, the supremely well-researched bacterium E. coli--because the cell is the simplest level of organization that manifests all the features of the phenomenon of life. Harold shows that as simple as they appear when compared to ourselves, every cell displays a dynamic pattern in space and time, orders of magnitude richer than its elements. It integrates the writhings and couplings of billions of molecules into a coherent whole, draws matter and energy into itself, constructs and reproduces its own order, and persists in this manner for numberless generations while continuously adapting to a changing world. A cell constitutes a unitary whole, a unit of life, and in this volume one of the leading authorities on the cell gives us a vivid picture of what goes on within this minute precinct. The result is a richly detailed, meticulously crafted account of what modern science can tell us about life as well as one scientist's personal attempt to wring understanding from the tide of knowledge.
320 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2001
29 people are currently reading
230 people want to read
About the author
Franklin M. Harold
7 books6 followersEmeritus Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
April 15, 2012
Pub'd in 2001 ... and in terms of biotechnology, that's a LOT of time. Yet this one almost qualifies as a reference and STILL seems quite advanced and relevant. It touches on some BIG issues ... what is life? ... at what point do lifeless molecules start to 'come alive'? ... etc. No, there are no real answers ... but the MOST IMPORTANT questions are asked ... and those can lead researchers in the right directions.
The book is very complete ... starting with the basics (fundamental physics, chem and biology) ... smoothly (but DENSELY) winding its way to cutting edge studies, like systems biology, and even adding pure philosophy when appropriate.
I bought the book when it first came out in 2001 thru the Sci Am book club and took ample time reading/absorbing its material, note-taking and highlighting along the way. I subscribe to all the major sci rags -- Sci News, Sci Am, New Sci, Am Sci, Discover, etc . -- whose pages often feature articles and essays on the latest origin-of-life theory. We also have plenty of web sites (tolweb.org), blogs and forums. But Franklin's 11+ year book still holds its own -- an important achievement!
The book is very complete ... starting with the basics (fundamental physics, chem and biology) ... smoothly (but DENSELY) winding its way to cutting edge studies, like systems biology, and even adding pure philosophy when appropriate.
I bought the book when it first came out in 2001 thru the Sci Am book club and took ample time reading/absorbing its material, note-taking and highlighting along the way. I subscribe to all the major sci rags -- Sci News, Sci Am, New Sci, Am Sci, Discover, etc . -- whose pages often feature articles and essays on the latest origin-of-life theory. We also have plenty of web sites (tolweb.org), blogs and forums. But Franklin's 11+ year book still holds its own -- an important achievement!
August 8, 2019
Difficult, profound; worth the reader's best efforts
Time and again in this dense, intensely scientific exposition on cellular life, Professor Harold expresses his dissatisfaction with what he calls the "genocentric" view of life. Instead he would like to see a "focus on the cellular templet rather than the molecular gene." He believes this would represent "a significant divergence from the genocentric conception of life that now dominates the scientific literature and even more so, the popular press." (p. 100) Harold makes a strong case for his point of view; indeed, it is this book more than any other that has made me see the overriding influence the immediate molecular environment has on reproduction and growth.
The genome has its "recipe," its code of instructions, but what Harold is at pains to tell us is that without the four-dimensional cellular environment in which the gene's "instructions" are carried out in a step-by-step process, there would be no growth or reproduction.
What this means is that the shape and temperature, the position and abundance of the surrounding cellular elements themselves shape the genetic expression as much as or even more than the genome. All life comes from life. All cells come from cells. There is no acting out of the genetic code outside a cellular environment.
And so we see Harold's frustration and that of other molecular biologists at all the hoopla that has accompanied the sequencing of the genome when it is clear that reading the code is just a very small step toward understanding how the cell reproduces itself and grows. What we need to understand is the intricate environment of the cell and how it interacts with the code leading to the epigenetic assembly of the cell and ultimately of the organism. The complications inherent in such an enterprise are truly mind-boggling in the extreme. Analysis of the four-dimensional factors would overwhelm the fastest computers in existence--all of them at the same time--if somehow we could figure out how to employ them to aid our analysis.
These facts explain why scientists like Harold are insistent upon a holistic approach to biology and why they again and again warn about the limitations of a reductionist approach. Life is just too complicated to be understood by breaking it down into pieces and attempting to put it back together, or to reverse engineer it.
On page 213 there is an interesting comparison of E. O. Wilson's view that there is "progress" in evolution and Stephen J. Gould's emphatic view that there is not. Harold seems to be implying that because organisms have become more complex that there is indeed at least "direction" in evolution. I would go further than this and observe that the rise of complex culture-bearing organisms like humans, who may be able to protect their home planet from a death-dealing meteor, implies if not "progress" in evolution, something equally agreeable. However, I would not say that our rise was inevitable. Indeed, along with Gould I would call it a contingency.
Much of the book, especially chapters three through eight, is a technical exploration of the microbial world of the cell using concepts and terminology not readily accessible to the lay reader. Harold is aware of this, at least for Chapter 4, "Molecular Logic," where he writes on page 35, "...students of biochemistry will find little in [the chapter]...that is new to them, but for the layman it may be like sipping water from a firehose." (!) Professor Harold provides a glossary, but one suspects one is out of one's depth when the words searched for are not in the glossary, but can be found in an ordinary dictionary!
Nonetheless the broad outlines of Harold's message can be discerned without appreciating fully the intricacies of cell metabolism and development. The introductory chapters, "Schrödinger's Riddle" and "The Quality of Life" explore the question that physicist Erwin Schrödinger famously asked in his much admired little book, What Is Life? (1944), a book that very much impressed the young Franklin Harold. In the closing chapters, beginning with Chapter 9 "By Descent with Modification," and especially the engaging Chapter 10 "So What is Life?", Harold looks more generally at evolution. He touches on the new science of complexity and how it relates to biology, and on the thermodynamics of ecosystems and how that affects natural selection. His treatment of some of the controversies in evolutionary theory is both illuminating and balanced, so much so that one would like to quote whole passages. This is obviously a subject Professor Harold has thought long and hard about for many years. Here are some examples of his thought:
"...[F]orm is not directly or rigidly determined by the genotype: the genes define a range within which the phenotype falls, but forms arise epigenetically as the result of developmental processes." (p. 209)
"Organisms are historical creatures, the products of evolution; we should not expect to deduce all their properties from universal laws." (p. 218)
"What we lack is an understanding of the principles that ultimately make living organisms living, and in their absence we cannot hope to integrate the phenomenon of life into the familiar framework of physical law. I am not here to advocate a veiled vitalism, nor to sneak in a creator by the back door. But...until we have forged rational links between the several domains of science, our understanding of life will remain incomplete and even superficial." (p. 218)
"...[W]hile a machine implies a machine maker, an organism is a self-organizing entity." (p. 220)
"Organisms process matter and energy as well as information; each represents a dynamic node in a whirlpool of several currents, and self-reproduction is a property of the collective, not of genes.... DNA is a peculiar sort of software, that can only be correctly interpreted by its own unique hardware.... [S]ending aliens the genome of a cat is no substitute for sending the cat itself--complete with mice." (p. 221)
--Dennis Littrell, author of “The World Is Not as We Think It Is”
Time and again in this dense, intensely scientific exposition on cellular life, Professor Harold expresses his dissatisfaction with what he calls the "genocentric" view of life. Instead he would like to see a "focus on the cellular templet rather than the molecular gene." He believes this would represent "a significant divergence from the genocentric conception of life that now dominates the scientific literature and even more so, the popular press." (p. 100) Harold makes a strong case for his point of view; indeed, it is this book more than any other that has made me see the overriding influence the immediate molecular environment has on reproduction and growth.
The genome has its "recipe," its code of instructions, but what Harold is at pains to tell us is that without the four-dimensional cellular environment in which the gene's "instructions" are carried out in a step-by-step process, there would be no growth or reproduction.
What this means is that the shape and temperature, the position and abundance of the surrounding cellular elements themselves shape the genetic expression as much as or even more than the genome. All life comes from life. All cells come from cells. There is no acting out of the genetic code outside a cellular environment.
And so we see Harold's frustration and that of other molecular biologists at all the hoopla that has accompanied the sequencing of the genome when it is clear that reading the code is just a very small step toward understanding how the cell reproduces itself and grows. What we need to understand is the intricate environment of the cell and how it interacts with the code leading to the epigenetic assembly of the cell and ultimately of the organism. The complications inherent in such an enterprise are truly mind-boggling in the extreme. Analysis of the four-dimensional factors would overwhelm the fastest computers in existence--all of them at the same time--if somehow we could figure out how to employ them to aid our analysis.
These facts explain why scientists like Harold are insistent upon a holistic approach to biology and why they again and again warn about the limitations of a reductionist approach. Life is just too complicated to be understood by breaking it down into pieces and attempting to put it back together, or to reverse engineer it.
On page 213 there is an interesting comparison of E. O. Wilson's view that there is "progress" in evolution and Stephen J. Gould's emphatic view that there is not. Harold seems to be implying that because organisms have become more complex that there is indeed at least "direction" in evolution. I would go further than this and observe that the rise of complex culture-bearing organisms like humans, who may be able to protect their home planet from a death-dealing meteor, implies if not "progress" in evolution, something equally agreeable. However, I would not say that our rise was inevitable. Indeed, along with Gould I would call it a contingency.
Much of the book, especially chapters three through eight, is a technical exploration of the microbial world of the cell using concepts and terminology not readily accessible to the lay reader. Harold is aware of this, at least for Chapter 4, "Molecular Logic," where he writes on page 35, "...students of biochemistry will find little in [the chapter]...that is new to them, but for the layman it may be like sipping water from a firehose." (!) Professor Harold provides a glossary, but one suspects one is out of one's depth when the words searched for are not in the glossary, but can be found in an ordinary dictionary!
Nonetheless the broad outlines of Harold's message can be discerned without appreciating fully the intricacies of cell metabolism and development. The introductory chapters, "Schrödinger's Riddle" and "The Quality of Life" explore the question that physicist Erwin Schrödinger famously asked in his much admired little book, What Is Life? (1944), a book that very much impressed the young Franklin Harold. In the closing chapters, beginning with Chapter 9 "By Descent with Modification," and especially the engaging Chapter 10 "So What is Life?", Harold looks more generally at evolution. He touches on the new science of complexity and how it relates to biology, and on the thermodynamics of ecosystems and how that affects natural selection. His treatment of some of the controversies in evolutionary theory is both illuminating and balanced, so much so that one would like to quote whole passages. This is obviously a subject Professor Harold has thought long and hard about for many years. Here are some examples of his thought:
"...[F]orm is not directly or rigidly determined by the genotype: the genes define a range within which the phenotype falls, but forms arise epigenetically as the result of developmental processes." (p. 209)
"Organisms are historical creatures, the products of evolution; we should not expect to deduce all their properties from universal laws." (p. 218)
"What we lack is an understanding of the principles that ultimately make living organisms living, and in their absence we cannot hope to integrate the phenomenon of life into the familiar framework of physical law. I am not here to advocate a veiled vitalism, nor to sneak in a creator by the back door. But...until we have forged rational links between the several domains of science, our understanding of life will remain incomplete and even superficial." (p. 218)
"...[W]hile a machine implies a machine maker, an organism is a self-organizing entity." (p. 220)
"Organisms process matter and energy as well as information; each represents a dynamic node in a whirlpool of several currents, and self-reproduction is a property of the collective, not of genes.... DNA is a peculiar sort of software, that can only be correctly interpreted by its own unique hardware.... [S]ending aliens the genome of a cat is no substitute for sending the cat itself--complete with mice." (p. 221)
--Dennis Littrell, author of “The World Is Not as We Think It Is”
November 1, 2023
To be honest, the book was written for a more specialized audience than I represent, but while I found it tough going due to my lack of background, it was well worth the effort. The author reviews and discusses the most recent theories of cell function and devotes the last section of the book to developing theories on the origins of life. Harold, himself, favors the theory that life arises because ordered systems develop normally in the physical universe. I am oversimplifying immensely but I cannot pretend to understand everything this book covers about cell structure and function. If, like me, you are a general reader but willing to put in the work to understand at least the main outlines of current biology, yiu will find this book worth your time.
February 2, 2015
This book provides an excellent introduction to the basic concepts of cellular biology without overwhelming the lay reader with too much detail., too much math or chemistry, or too many charts. I came away knowing a lot more about cells and how they are structured and how they work than I ever have. Plus it provided a good overview of the the issues (or at least I think they're still the issues--the book is 14 years old and maybe a lot has changed). I liked the fact that the writer is of a philosophical bent and integrated a lot of ancient writing about life into the text. The only reason I did not rate it a 5 was that the glossary was not quite sufficient. Many words were used that were not explained. I also think it would have been helpful to provide a bibliography of suggested readings for the lay reader. The cited references were all from professional journals. I know that I need to read Stephen Pinker and Jay Gould and Richard Dawkins for more accessible writing in this field, but it would have been nice to have an actual guide.
February 7, 2008
cells are pretty adorable.
December 5, 2021
Very dense book, asking some great questions
Packed with really good information, but also asking the WHYs, not just the regular textbook descriptions, trying to examine systems and processes from the top down approach, ie. why things are the way they are, Complexity and Emergence vs reductionism, which for me is the better way.
I personally found his writing style though, too 'messy', not a good storyteller, not engaging for the reader, but hey, this is common in science books.
Also, I would disagree on the chapter about Entropy. Life is a continuous fight against the 2nd law, and in the end we always lose... Energy dissipation can lower entropy, but it's not a characteristic of living things, as it happens all over the non-living universe, it is how planets are formed from random dust, creating an orderly system, with the aid of gravity, therefore lowering entropy.
But then again, who can define what Life is...
Packed with really good information, but also asking the WHYs, not just the regular textbook descriptions, trying to examine systems and processes from the top down approach, ie. why things are the way they are, Complexity and Emergence vs reductionism, which for me is the better way.
I personally found his writing style though, too 'messy', not a good storyteller, not engaging for the reader, but hey, this is common in science books.
Also, I would disagree on the chapter about Entropy. Life is a continuous fight against the 2nd law, and in the end we always lose... Energy dissipation can lower entropy, but it's not a characteristic of living things, as it happens all over the non-living universe, it is how planets are formed from random dust, creating an orderly system, with the aid of gravity, therefore lowering entropy.
But then again, who can define what Life is...
March 31, 2025
Got me thinking about treating cells as complex systems, and introduced me to the notion of morphogenetic fields. I want to follow up on this and learn some physics to get to grips with the ideas. But I don't feel like it really changed my perception of how cells function, I found some of the sections on cell biology to be tedious, and the discussions on evolutionary cell biology did not teach me much. It did make me want to learn more about the biology of weird unicellular eukaryotes. Interesting takes on philosophy of science, and whether knowing about the 'secret of life' takes away from its magic.
May 26, 2022
Not your average textbook. This book works best if you have prior interest/knowledge in cell biology and you want a book that lets the peculiarity of cells breathe. I keep it around to remind myself that formality is our kryptonite.
This book would work well in lecture form, with visuals, I think it'd better if even more colloquial, goofy and connected to every day concerns.
This book would work well in lecture form, with visuals, I think it'd better if even more colloquial, goofy and connected to every day concerns.
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March 19, 2020Very interesting!
April 17, 2009
Pretty dense reading but if you've had college level biology, it's a good recap. Written by a biochemist, his main thrust is that DNA alone isn't responsible for everything that happens in the cell. The structures and pathways are so complex, he looks for other explanations for the complexity.
He's certainly not in the intelligent design crowd - but a legitimate scientist searching for explanations about the "self-organizing complexity" we can observe. DNA codes proteins, that's all it does. It doesn't build membranes, or control cell division, or any of the other myriad functions of cells. Interesting. We know so little. This book is about 7-8 years old.
He's certainly not in the intelligent design crowd - but a legitimate scientist searching for explanations about the "self-organizing complexity" we can observe. DNA codes proteins, that's all it does. It doesn't build membranes, or control cell division, or any of the other myriad functions of cells. Interesting. We know so little. This book is about 7-8 years old.
November 6, 2012
Great book, but slightly too advanced for me. I had biology and chemistry at high school and I forgot most of it. But it was enough for me to understand the concepts which were well described and documented. But my knowledge is not sufficient for me to explain it to anybody else, so you have to read it for yourself.
I always wondered about the connection between atoms and molecules and living cells and this gave me lots of information. About the way things are transported through membranes, how the cell divide, how they know when and where to divide, how they get food...
I always wondered about the connection between atoms and molecules and living cells and this gave me lots of information. About the way things are transported through membranes, how the cell divide, how they know when and where to divide, how they get food...
July 19, 2018
Read it around 2010 in high-school after we had lessons on cells and I wanted to learn more. When I had finished reading iyt I wanted to become a microbiologist (I reconsiderd that unfortunately); it is a fascinating presentation of a fascinating subject. I suppose it is a bit dated now as other reviewers have pointed out. I would recommend it for those who want to be inspired and feed their curiousity but perhaps not as a updated introduction to the field.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews