Cells: The Illustrated Story of Life

Biologist and illustrator Sardet (Plankton) delivers a dazzling illustrated overview of the origin and evolution of living things, from the first protocells to complex multicellular organisms. Sardet’s history of evolution and biodiversity begins with Charles Darwin’s first sketch of the tree of life and proceeds through Lynn Margulis’s depiction of five kingdoms of life and the most recent mapping of relationships between organisms through genetic sequencing. Elsewhere, readers learn about LUCA, the elusive “last universal common ancestor,” the strange biology of viruses and their outsize influence on evolution and ecosystems, and the astonishingly complex inner machinery and dynamic lives of cells. Sardet details no shortage of strange and fascinating creatures, like the “blob,” an amoeba that can solve mazes. The eye-catching imagery includes period drawings and lithographs, images of cells from under the microscope, stunning photographs of trilobite fossils and exploding stars, and the author’s own colorful drawings of cells inspired by Guillaume Apollinaire’s “calligrams,” poems in which words are arranged to form an image. Throughout, QR codes guide readers to computer animations of molecular processes. This is an informative and entertaining exploration of the building blocks of life. Illus. (Dec.)