The microscopic cell is Earth’s greatest success story, and the common ancestor we share with all other organisms. Formed over three and a half billion years ago, life exploded from this minuscule powerhouse, first throughout the seas and then, over millions of years, across the lands to create the complex living forms populating the planet today. Yet, how has such a minute organism been so powerful? What has enabled it both to create and break down life on earth over billions of years? And, how have cells interacted to create an extraordinary diversity of plant, aquatic, terrestrial, and avian life? Here, Jack Challoner shines a spotlight on the passage of the cell through time to explore how a continual myriad of interactions and symbiotic relationships have been, and continue to be, the extraordinary catalyst for life.

微观细胞是地球上有着最伟大故事的“生物”，也是我们与其他生物的共同组成部分。35亿年前，微生物开始出现，最初是在海洋中出现，后来慢慢进化到陆地上，再经过漫长的进化过程才演变成今天的样子。书中主要介绍这些细胞及其美学价值。

Always frustrated by lack of clarity in books he read as a child, Jack long felt the need to make the amazing things that science and technology have achieved accessible to a wide audience. After studying physics in London, he trained as a science and maths teacher, then worked at London's Science Museum, in the education department and in their flagship interactive gallery, Launch Pad.

Jack left the museum in 1991 to write science and technology books, and to write and perform science shows in museums, libraries and schools. He's been doing all that ever since, with nearly forty books to his name. He also works as a consultant on other people's science books, and sometimes in television, helping to develop new ideas or work up existing ones.

He is also a musician and singer, writing, producing and performing music. He lives in Bristol, England