The Lives of a Cell

Notes of a Biology Watcher

By: Lewis Thomas

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

In The Lives of a Cell, Dr. Lewis Thomas opens up to the listener a universe of knowledge and perception that is perhaps not wholly unfamiliar to the research scientist; but the world he explores is also one of men and women, of complex interrelationships, old ironies, peculiar powers, and intricate languages that give identity to the alienated and direction to the dependent. This remarkable work offers a subtle, bold vision of humankind and the world around us - a sense of what gives life - from a writer who seems to draw grace and strength from the very substance of his subject, a man of wit and imagination who takes pleasure in and gives meaning to nearly everything he beholds.

Lewis Thomas was chairman of the Department of Pathology and Dean at Yale Medical School and president of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. The Lives of a Cell won a National Book Award in 1974.

©1974 Lewis Thomas (P)1995 Blackstone Audiobooks

Sublime

Magnificent. Straight from mind of an extraordinary human beings to your ears. I cannot imagine any other content that is more enriching and thought provoking.

Amazing

The little and big miracles of our world. I couldn’t stop reading it! This book was recommended to me by a friend. I will get all his other books.

Oldy but goody

Mildly dated but still pretty interesting and relevant. He really goes off on tangents in the last few chapter, especially on the micro minutia of language derivations, which don't have much to do with "lives of a cell". When he sticks to biology and philosophy of biology, much better.

I'm Smitten

This is a fantastic representation of the scope of science as it approaches the supernatural.

that asymptote trajectory, the brinkmanship, the audacity. *Chef's Kiss,*. I started this a week after I began listening to a great presentation of the Bhagavad Gita, but I don't think the author would be surprised.

His grasp of language and the evolutionary purpose of storytelling is mind-blowing. If you have a thirsty mind, drink. Listen to this book.

Great choice of narrator, but Grover Gardner always is!

More Interesting as History Now

When I first read this book in the very-early 1980's it was fascinating, and I loved it - it was my first real encounter with the 'we are colonies of cells' perspective (a potentially useful perspective), and I now realize that I probably skipped-over the philosophizing - for I now viewed the author's philosophizing (and there seemed to be a lot of it) as dated, cliche, a bit leftist, and just plain inadequate and weak.

Today, it will probably not be your first encounter with such a bio-mindset, and it may not be your first encounter with bad philosophizing - both being mainstream these days (and the latter dating back to the beginning of humanity), but it should be fascinating from a historical time-capsule standpoint - how people philosophically thought in that era.

Good.

This book can sound repetitive at times but this is because the shortness of the chapters makes the author’s favorite topics re-appear in different places. I think the intended purpose is to give the work a ‘main thrust’ in place of a single narrative and it works.

So enlightening and enjoyable!

This book had so many more topics related to the cell than simply a discourse on a little unit of physiology.

The author coneyed similarities between a cell as a unit of physiology as well as groups of beings that, as a collective, act as a cell.

I have listened twice and I'll listen again because each time I hear it, my perspectives on life and existence are enhanced.

Hard to believe this gem was published in 1974

The narration is up to Grover Gardner’s usual high standard. The book is beautifully written and full of amazing observations about our world and it’s inhabitants .Thomas presents his “wholistic” view in twenty eight succinct chapters that are informative
and engaging. The acclaim that greeted this publication in 1974 remains well deserved, this read
is time well spent.