"One of Financial Times (FT.com) Best Science Books of 2016" "One of Nature.com's Top 20 Books for 2016" "Shortlisted for the 2017 Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science" Sean B. Carroll is an award-winning scientist, writer, educator, and executive producer. He is vice president for science education at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and professor of molecular biology and genetics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His books include Endless Forms Most Beautiful, Brave Genius, and Remarkable Creatures, which was a finalist for the National Book Award for nonfiction.
Now the subject of an Emmy Award–winning film the New York Times calls "spellbinding"
How does life work? How does nature produce the right numbers of zebras and lions on the African savanna, or fish in the ocean? How do our bodies produce the right numbers of cells in our organs and bloodstream? In The Serengeti Rules, award-winning biologist and author Sean Carroll tells the stories of the pioneering scientists who sought the answers to such simple yet profoundly important questions, and shows how their discoveries matter for our health and the health of the planet we depend upon.
One of the most important revelations about the natural world is that everything is regulated-there are rules that regulate the amount of every molecule in our bodies and rules that govern the numbers of every animal and plant in the wild. And the most surprising revelation about the rules that regulate life at such different scales is that they are remarkably similar-there is a common underlying logic of life. Carroll recounts how our deep knowledge of the rules and logic of the human body has spurred the advent of revolutionary life-saving medicines, and makes the compelling case that it is now time to use the Serengeti Rules to heal our ailing planet.
A bold and inspiring synthesis by one of our most accomplished biologists and gifted storytellers, The Serengeti Rules is the first book to illuminate how life works at vastly different scales. Read it and you will never look at the world the same way again. "In The Serengeti Rules, the author goes from E. coli to elephants to lay out the basic rules that shape so much of what's around us and inside us."---Brian Switek, Wall Street Journal "In this thoroughly engaging book, Carroll . . . persuasively argues that life at all levels of complexity is self-regulated, from the inner workings of cells to the larger relationships governing the Serengeti ecosystem. . . . Carroll superbly animates biological principles while providing important insights." "The Serengeti Rules is one of the best biology books for general readers I've ever encountered. It should be required reading for every college student, regardless of major." "A compelling read filled with big, bold ideas."---Brian J. Enquist, Nature "A thought-provoking challenge to complacency." "Carroll's book is fantastic, a success story in going form the specific to the general. It helps that Carroll is a gifted writer, captivating and thoughtful, and highly respectful of the reader. Carroll brings in the history of thought and research in the relevant areas of physiology, ecology etc. His messages are framed in the larger context of the Earth's overall health and important environmental issues. He links the subject matter to key central themes in biological theory (such as natural selection and evolution). And this is all done very well. You've seen the synthetic overviews of life and evolution framed in chaos theory, complexity theory, even quantum physics. This is better. This is a book to give to your favorite biology teacher (high school or college), and that teacher will take from it examples, connections, lessons, ways of telling, that will enrich their teaching immeasurably."---Greg Laden, ScienceBlog "As a subject for popular science, regulation seems to fail the thrill test. . . . {Sean Carroll} has risen to the challenge with this wonderful book about the
