So Simple a Beginning
Book description
A biophysicist reveals the hidden unity behind nature's breathtaking complexity
The form and function of a sprinting cheetah are quite unlike those of a rooted tree. A human being is very different from a bacterium or a zebra. The living world is a realm of dazzling variety, yet a shared…
Why read it?
2 authors picked So Simple a Beginning as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Elegant, deep—I learned many things here.
This book will help you develop your own good ideas because the author respects you too much to give a jumble of just-so stories wrapped in glib human interest. Instead, he explains, often with brilliant metaphors from everyday experience. I especially liked the chapters on embryos, organs, the microbiome, and scaling, which are particularly fresh, insightful, and beautifully clear.
Also, unlike so many popularizations, this one is full of graceful but precise illustrations that pull you in and actually clarify key points—not just eye candy. This book will help you have your own ideas…
From Philip's list on have your own science or math ideas.
So Simple A Beginning (the title is from the last sentence of Darwin’s The Origin of Species) is beautifully and elegantly written and is accessible to a wide audience.
This book has no math but instead focuses on explaining four physics principles that shape the living world: self-assembly, regulatory circuits, predictable randomness, and scaling. I’m jealous of Raghu Parthasarathy because he is a wonderful artist as well as an author; his book is full of his charming illustrations.
This book highlights the “simplicity amid complexity” that is the main reason you need physics to understand biology.
From Brad's list on physics in medicine and biology.
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