The Master Builder: How the New Science of the Cell Is Rewriting the Story of Life

4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars | 111 ratings

Price: 15.3

Last update: 12-17-2024


About this item

"An ingenious argument" (Kirkus) for a "novel thesis" (Publishers Weekly) that cells, not DNA, hold the key to understanding life's past and present

What defines who we are? For decades, the answer has seemed obvious: our genes, the "blueprint of life." In The Master Builder, biologist Alfonso Martinez Arias argues we've been missing the bigger picture. It's not our genes that define who we are, but our cells. While genes are important, nothing in our DNA explains why the heart is on the left side of the body, how many fingers we have, or even how our cells manage to reproduce. Drawing on new research from his own lab and others, Martinez Arias reveals that we are composed of a thrillingly intricate, constantly moving symphony of cells. Both their long lineage—stretching back to the very first cell—and their intricate interactions within our bodies today make us who we are.

Engaging and ambitious, The Master Builder will transform your understanding of our past, present, and future—as individuals and as a species.


Top reviews from the United States

  • Amazon Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome book! Really makes you think...
    Reviewed in the United States on October 16, 2024
    I was blown away with this book! It makes so much sense. It's going to be a game changer. The cell IS the builder, DNA is the instructions. "Copy Cat" the cloned cat. Clone of another cat but different coat pattern came out. Why if its an exact duplicate using the exact same DNA would there be a difference in appearance? Because the cells read the instructions, but didn't build the cat as an exact copy. The cells had the information to build the cat, but the coat difference says they didn't exactly follow the instruction to a t. Also, when babies are conceived, the cells divide. But how does a cell know to be a brain cell or a liver cell? Because they communicate with each other. It's a fascinating book and a must read for anyone interested in genetics. A+...
  • Robert D Martin
    4.0 out of 5 stars Me the cell
    Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2024
    Convincingly argued, after reading , there can be little doubt that the cell is the master of the body using the DNA bricks with the protein morter. On concluding, the reader will be humbled and wiser about the body human and how it functions. Mildly repetitions, it does leave the reader still wondering how it all works.
  • Jon G. Allen
    5.0 out of 5 stars A Master Teacher and Writer
    Reviewed in the United States on January 30, 2024
    I am a psychologist, not a biologist, so my expertise is limited. I have a longstanding interest in cells, owing to my unusual—but by no means unique—view: For us to have minds, our cells must have some mind-like qualities. I have read several excellent books on cell biology and thus already was convinced that the mainstream gene-centered view is outdated and that cells are intelligent far beyond our comprehension. But, for a lay reader, I think Arias’s book is in a class by itself. I think of it as Cell Biology 101, masterfully taught. But it is far more than that: It is truly visionary, while acknowledging that we are only on the cusp of a new vision.

    What I find most mind-boggling: We are composed of 40 trillion human cells living in symbiosis with 100 trillion bacteria. That’s 140 trillion living organisms in a huge, multilayered community, in continuous communication. From what I’ve read, I think of cells as exemplifying social cognition. Reading through this book cemented that conviction. Then I got to page 302, the last page in the book: “Cells are intuitive and social, sensing and reactive to their environment in a complex, emergent manner.” I am not crazy to think of cells as mind-like. But their capacity to get along with each other in a 140-trillion numbered community is a lot better than ours.
  • deanna delnicki
    5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing
    Reviewed in the United States on July 7, 2024
    This was an excellent book! Cells at Center stage, an in depth understanding of the potential, the beginning of and end of life
  • Beth Lowrie
    5.0 out of 5 stars very readable
    Reviewed in the United States on April 4, 2024
    The book is very well written and provides both an historical reference of work and discussion of leading edge research. It provides a compelling case for a central role of the cell in human development
  • Bill
    4.0 out of 5 stars Exposition on Developmental Biology is Good - But Anti-Genomics Diatribes are Tiresome
    Reviewed in the United States on December 25, 2023
    I purchased this book because understanding the details of how the plants and animals build themselves is truly intriguing. This book is not a bad resource. It has interesting stories and anecdotes, but is not a systematic exposition. My only complaint is that the author seems to resent the attention given to genomics in recent years. Yes - developmental biology deserves attention, maybe even more than it gets, but what's the necessity of all the carping. Full Disclosure - I am not a biologist - just a curious layperson.
  • Craig L. Foster
    5.0 out of 5 stars Science must retain this important perspective
    Reviewed in the United States on May 25, 2024
    Refutes the overworked idea that the inherited genome controls the development of all life.
  • Liff
    1.0 out of 5 stars I made it to page 23
    Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2024
    The book started out fine, then Page 21 has a revisionist version of history about the determination of the structure of deoxyribonucleic acid. He calls it "discovery". Franklin, Watson, and Crick didn't discover it, look up the actual title of the 1953 Nobel Prize. Also, the scientist that took the Photo 51 way Raymond Gosling. (No single person discovered the American continent, and no single person discovered DNA.)

    Page 22: "...it is nearly impossible to define what an individual gene is." No, no it's not. Just search for "gene definition biology" then click on the first link and you'll know the definition of a gene. Search for 'gene definition biology debate" and the first link from your previous search is the 4th link. Of course the definition of gene has changed from the 1860's, but there is not a debate over what a gene is.

    Page 23: "For example, if a gene is 4 letters long, ..." I hope he knows that is not how biologists describe gene length. Search for "unit for describing gene length". They are not called 'letters' because they are bases. And RNA needs 3 bases to use 1 amino acid. That 4th base can't be possible. 3 and 6 are possible, but not 5, which is the next example used in the book. At the bottom of page 23: an 11 base long sequence.

    I had high hopes for reading this book. I wanted this book to be great. I hope the editor was someone who took biology in high school and never took another class all the way through university. There is no way someone who could coauthor a biology textbook titled Principles of Development could have written this book. Either way, it is in the recycle bin now. YMMV.

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