The Most Important Molecule. From the DNA Structure to Biomedicine of the 21st Century.

Of all the things which surround us, life seems to be the most inexplicable one. We ave got used to the fact that it has always been around and inside us and we have lost the ability to wonder. But go to the forest and look at the trees, grass, flowers, birds and ants as if you saw them for the first time and you will be overwhelmed with feeling of helplessness in the face of the great mystery of life. Is there really something which we have in common, something which unites all the living creatures, from man to invisible microbes? What determines the continuity of life, its never-ending revival from generation to generation? These questions are as old as the world itself, but we received the first answers only in the second half of the twentieth century and these answers turned out not to be too complicated, but, and most importantly, they turned to be dazzlingly beautiful. The book is about how we managed to get these answers and what their substance is. When the science of molecular biology answers the age-old question “What is life?”, DNA molecule plays a central role. It also plays the central role in the book. The author paid special attention to those questions which require physics and mathematics to answer them. This is what makes the book different from the number of other books out there dedicated to DNA.

Moscow: Alpina non-fiction, 2017