The Dance of Life: The New Science of How a Single Cell Becomes a Human Being

A renowned biologist's cutting-edge and unconventional examination of human reproduction and embryo research




Scientists have long struggled to make pregnancy easier, safer, and more successful. In The Dance of Life, developmental and stem-cell biologist Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz takes us to the front lines of efforts to understand the creation of a human life. She has spent two decades unraveling the mysteries of development, as a simple fertilized egg becomes a complex human being of forty trillion cells. Zernicka-Goetz's work is both incredibly practical and astonishingly vast: her groundbreaking experiments with mouse, human, and artificial embryo models give hope to how more women can sustain viable pregnancies. Set at the intersection of science's greatest powers and humanity's greatest concern, The Dance of Life is a revelatory account of the future of fertility -- and life itself.

Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz is Professor of Mammalian Development and Stem Cell Biology at the University of Cambridge, where she runs a laboratory in the Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience. She is also a Fellow of Sidney Sussex College and a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow. She holds several patents related to diagnosis and treatment, and has published 117 papers in major journals such as Nature, Science, and Cell. She lives in Cambridge, UK.




Roger Highfield is an author, journalist, broadcaster, and Science Director at the Science Museum Group. He is also Visiting Professor of Public Engagement at the University of Oxford and University College London. Prior to his work at the Science Museum Group, he was the editor of New Scientist and the science editor of the Daily Telegraph. He has written or co-authored eight popular science books, and edited J. Craig Venter's autobiography, A Life Decoded (Allen Lane/Viking, 2007), which was shortlisted for the Royal Society's Science Book Prize. He lives in London, UK.