From the first cork cell to the digital cell: a 400-year quest to understand life’s smallest unit. In 1665, Robert Hooke coined the word cell after peering through a handmade microscope. He could not have imagined that those tiny compartments would reveal the molecular engines of life. The Architecture of Life tells that epic story from the candle-lit laboratories of Hooke and Leeuwenhoek to the AI supercomputers predicting the shapes of every protein on Earth. Across twenty vivid chapters, we blend narrative history with cutting-edge biology to show how cells build, communicate, repair, and even think. You’ll meet the pioneers who uncovered life’s hidden machinery. Hooke, Leeuwenhoek, Schleiden, Schwann, Virchow, de Duve, Margulis, Krebs, and the modern visionaries who decode genomes, design synthetic organisms, and create “digital twins” of living cells. Unlike many books that focus solely on genetics, this book places the cell itself at the center stage. A living network where information, energy, and cooperation give rise to consciousness. It moves from microscopes to molecules to minds, tracing how thirty-seven trillion cells form the society of selves that is you. Perfect for readers who enjoy: The Gene – Siddhartha Mukherjee - Life Ascending – Nick Lane - The Body – Bill Bryson - The Song of the Cell – Siddhartha Mukherjee - The Tangled Tree – David Quammen