The goal of this book is laudable - to give non-scientific readers enough understanding of the science around biomedical research to develop a reasonable BS detector when consuming science/medical news from mainstream sources (as in not academic journals). The author clearly has no agenda beyond a hope that a more informed populace - he deftly avoids wading into religious and philosophical debates, understanding that a shared knowledge base will improve the quality of those types of discourse.

The book mostly succeeds in its goal - particularly the later chapters, which are very short, focused dives into specific topics like cloning, nanoparticles, and other issues about which many people have strongly held and completely uninformed opinions. The first section of the book would benefit from a similar structure - while it is clearly accurate and thorough, it is a bit dense for the intended audience - those of us not already familiar with the material. The audio format probably did not help the situation - while the narrator very competently handled the scientific language, the use of a more conversational tone would be more in keeping with the intended casualness.

So even though print might be the way to go with this one, I'd still recommend it as a starting point for anyone who wants to improve their ability to evaluate medical news (and advertising) more critically.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley, Joshua Rappoport, and Brilliance Audio for an Advanced Listener's Copy of this title!

"The Cell" offers a bird's eye view of the microscopic bodies that rule and define us. Starting from the basic contents of a cell and the birth of the field of microbiology, Rappoport takes us on a walking tour of cells at work, discoveries within the field of microbiology, and where cellular research might be headed in the next several decades.

As someone who hasn't touched a microbiology text for a few months now, this was a lovely refresher and introduction to microbiology and microbiological research. I think those who are interested in this branch of science but don't come from a scientific background would really enjoy this book as a kick-off to picking up more complicated texts. I felt the language and presentation of topics was done in a way that was really accessible, and didn't require a degree to understand. Those who have a background in microbiology will probably find this to be a glaze-over of their beloved field, but I think the value of popular science books is that they take a really complex topic and present it in such a way that it's accessible to all.

The audio was really fun to listen to, and something that I thought was very cool this particular audio did was provide a PDF of the images in the book that listeners could reference, which is something I haven't seen (or heard) in an audiobook before. I felt like I was walking with the narrator through an episode of "Bill Nye the Science Guy", but for adults, which made for a pleasant reading experience.

Overall I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in microbiology, particularly high school and college students interested in pursuing the field, as I think this book is a great jumping-off point for further research and gives you an idea of where microbiology as a field stands today.

Explore the incredible complexity of the cell and the history of its scientific discovery. This book provides insights into cellular function, recent breakthroughs in medicine, and how to critically evaluate health information.

This book is fascinating. I especially enjoyed the information about discoveries made during recent decades. Though I don’t have a science background, I found the concepts easy to understand. I enjoyed the audiobook narration.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.