The Lives of Cells

1. By: Lewis Thomas The Lives of Cells Kimberly Nelson

2. Summary • These 29 essays were originally published in the New England Journal of Medicine. • Essays range from molecular DNA to subcellular to organisms to social interactions, and even extra terrestrial life • Cells act like bodies which act like species which act like ecosystems.

3. Themes • The ‘cell’ of the title is the earth. • Communication between organisms creating the intricate dance of the social organism • The relationship of man to both nature and the grand scheme of the universe • Scale is deceiving • Analogies are in every essay.

4. Essays • Thoughts for a Countdown • On Societies as Organisms • The Music of this Sphere • Social Talk • The Planning of Science • The World’s Biggest Membrane

5. Essay Thoughts for a countdown “ There are pieces of evidence that we have had it the wrong way around…Bacteria are beginning to have the aspect of social animals; they should provide nice models for the study of interactions between forms of life at all levels” (7). • Nature of Science • Scientific theories are subject to on-going testing and revision.

6. Essay On societies as organisms “The aggregating clusters of medical scientists on the boardwalk at Atlantic City, swarmed there from everywhere, have the look of assemblages of social insects” (11). • Nature of Science • Culture values and expectations determine what science is conducted and accepted. • Scientists’ observations of the same event may be different because the scientist’s prior knowledge may affect their observation.

7. Essay The Music of this sphere “Nature abhors a long silence. Underlying all the other signals, is a continual music” (20). “It is, like a speech, a dominant aspect of human biology” (21). Gorillas beat their chests Termites make percussive sounds Birdsong • Nature of Science • Scientists use their imagination and creativity when they analyze and interpret data.

8. Essay Social Talk “Language, once it comes alive, behaves like an active, motile organism” (90). The ant and its colony, as an example of a simultaneous individual and integrated social organism, for a link between the enclosed unit of a cell and the complex interactions of a society. • Nature of Science • Scientists’ observations of the same event may be different because the scientist’s prior knowledge may affect their observation.

9. Essay The planning of science “Generations of energetic and imaginative investigators exhausted their whole lives on the problems. It overlooks a staggering amount of basic research to say modern medicine began with the era of antibiotics” (117). • Nature of Science • Scientists use different methods to conduct scientific investigations • Mission oriented science vs. Basic research.

10. Essay The World’s biggest membrane “Taken all in all, the sky is a miraculous achievement. It works, and for what it is designed to accomplish it is as infallible as anything in nature…it is far and away the grandest product of collaboration in all of nature” (48). • The atmosphere as a protector, filter, provider • Macro-micro comparisons

11. Conclusion • Cells are like organisms, organisms are like cells • Societies are like ant colonies are like humans, • The human race is like a single superorganism metabolizing information.