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Writer's pictureJulie Mackin

Song of My Cellular Self

The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human by Siddhartha Mukherjee

2023 Frenzied Bibliophile Challenge Category: Nonfiction

Rating: 5/5 stars


Will you like this book? You might if you like or are interested in:


  • History of scientific discoveries

  • Cancer research

  • Medical advances

  • Cellular therapies

  • Accessible biology


I read Mukherjee’s first book, The Emperor of All Maladies, years ago and I was honestly just blown away by his ability to take such a massive and complicated subject and make it accessible to the lay reader. I am not going to be able to really summarize this book, the subject is not one I would never be able to synthesize in any real meaningful manner.


The Song of the Cell weaves a story of how the discoveries of cellular biology have changed so much of medicine. Mukjerjee covers everything from the Covid-19 pandemic, to stem cell therapies, to new approaches to depression treatment. While I was listening to the book, I kept just thinking about how far we have come in terms of fighting diseases but then the pandemic comes and it just shows us that we still have so far to go.


Near the the end of the book, Mukherjee focuses on the ethical questions all these cellular discoveries and treatments raise; it is a fascinating question, people with money will probably always have access to the newer technologies and there will need to be a conscious effort to make sure that there is equality when it comes to treating patients, which I don’t think we have achieved yet. Murherjee doesn't claim to be an ethicist but this book will have me searching out some medical ethic books.

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