Readers will come away from Shilos book with a better feel for how a developing embryo can organise itself. In later chapters, he also hints at the practical implications, such as the growth of tumours, stem cells and developmental abnormalities. Thisplus the appealing visual analogiesmake the book worthwhile for anyone with even a passing interest in the subject.Bob Holmes, New Scientist
Benny Shilo has had a distinguished career as a scientist seeking to understand how embryos develop, but he hasnt lost the sense of wonder we all have when we first learn how each of us developed from a single egg. In Lifes Blueprint, Shilo uses wonderfully lucid explanations, elegant metaphors, and lovely illustrations to bring the marvel of development to light.Carl Zimmer, coauthor of Evolution: Making Sense of Life
Shilo provides a broad and informative overview of the field of developmental biology. A timely and engaging introduction to the field for a non-specialist audience.James Briscoe, MRC-National Institute for Medical Research, UK
This is a wonderful, as well as beautiful, book; using the immediately recognizable imagery of photography to convey deep concepts in embryology in a medium that makes it intuitively understandable to a wide audience.Cliff Tabin, Harvard Medical School
Shilos explorations for making the complexities of the microscopic and submicroscopic world accessible through the use of everyday visual metaphors succeeds brilliantly. One can only hope that this book will represent the precedent for other similar ones that make modern biology accessible to a general public deeply interested in these topics. A bold and creative venture.Robert A. Weinberg, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research & Department of Biology, MIT
This superb book, which reflects Benny Shilos creativity and his profound understanding of organismal development, uses the eloquence of visual metaphors from common day life to convey the essence developmental processes and concepts. Public understanding of science is absolutely critical now and will be even more so in the future. This project in science communication is an exemplary one.Anne Ephrussi, European Molecular Biology Laboratory This superb book, which reflects Benny Shilos creativity and his profound understanding of organismal development, uses the eloquence of visual metaphors from common day life to convey the essence developmental processes and concepts. Public understanding of science is absolutely critical now and will be even more so in the future. This project in science communication is an exemplary one.Anne Ephrussi, European Molecular Biology Laboratory -- Anne Ephrussi
