“High school biology didn’t do much to make cells seem like fascinating, psychedelic visual art. The plant and animal cell diagrams splashed across textbook pages are a world away from what the billions of cells dividing, dying, or busily making proteins actually look like. The Cell more than makes up for that shortfall. . . . Amazing micrographs show the tiny building blocks of life in rich, strange detail. . . . If the images didn’t come with scientific explanation, it would be easy to confuse them with radical abstract art.”
— Wired
“[Challoner’s] book about cells featuring micrographed images of the biological blueprints for each and every living thing in the universe could be considered more than an informational and visual tome—it could easily be a photographic work of art.”
— Tech Times
“Small really is beautiful: Psychedelic images show the inner workings of cells in stunning detail. . . . The book, although enjoyable to look at, aims to show readers just how amazing and beautiful science can be.”
— Daily Mail
“The Cell offers scores of beautifully intimate views of the complex organic universes of cells. Their sheer physical diversity is striking. Adipose tissue bound in collagen gives the impression of seaweed caught in an old net. Bundles of collagen fibrils mimic bamboo forests. Cells undergoing mitosis looks like jellyfish breaking apart. . . . The pictures would wow a child, but the book covers an astonishing amount of ground and would be an intriguing addition to any introductory biology class.”
— Publishers Weekly
“In his beautiful visual exploration of the cell, Challoner uses an exuberance of imaging techniques as well as infographics and data figures to illustrate this fundamental unit of life. Handsome and elegantly designed, this tour through the cell’s history and diversity in form and function is a delight to peruse. Each page is its own lovely rabbit hole, parsed to allow for quick snippets of “cyte-seeing” or hours-long, leisurely pleasure reading. This stunning collection would make a winning addition to the library of any lover of life and science.”
— American Scientist