Nobel Prize-winning scientist Paul Nurse explains the fundamental ideas in biology and their uses today.

The renowned biologist has spent his career revealing how living cells work. Now he sets out to describe what it means to be alive by exploring five great ideas that underpin biology: the Cell, the Gene, Evolution by Natural Selection, Life as Chemistry, and Life as Information. He introduces the scientists who made the most important advances, and, using his personal experiences in and out of the lab, shares with us the challenges, the lucky breaks and the thrilling eureka moments of discovery.

He offers a vital exploration of perhaps the most important question in science and the urgent role biology has to play in helping us survive the challenges – climate change, pandemic, loss of biodiversity and food security – that face us all today.

In conversation with Judith Squires, University of Bristol.

Paul Nurse’s What Is Life? is published by David Fickling Books. Buy a copy from Waterstones, our bookselling partners.,

In partnership with University of Bristol.

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Festival of Ideas: Paul Nurse, What Is Life?