The machinery of life - 2. ed.
by David S. Goodsell · first published 2010
92% recommend5% neutral3% critical
Why HN recommends it
Short, illustrated tour of the cell at molecular scale, with intuitive explanations of how cellular machinery works. Suits lay readers and people without a biology background who want a gentle start.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
Related books
2009–2026A Computer Scientist's Guide to Cell Biology
William W. Cohen
Recommended by 5 · mentioned by 55 recommend · 5 mention5 recommend · 55 recommend
2014–2024Il deserto dei Tartari
Dino Buzzati
Recommended by 3 · mentioned by 33 recommend · 3 mention3 recommend · 33 recommend
2023–2026Signature in the cell
Stephen C. Meyer
Recommended by 2 · mentioned by 32 recommend · 3 mention2 recommend · 32 recommend
2009–2026Physical Biology of the Cell
Rob Phillips
Recommended by 5 · mentioned by 85 recommend · 8 mention5 recommend · 85 recommend
2013–2026THE TARTAR STEPPE
Dino Buzzati
Recommended by 8 · mentioned by 88 recommend · 8 mention8 recommend · 88 recommend
Molecular biology of the gene
James D. Watson, Nancy H. Hopkins, Jeffrey W. Roberts, Joan Argetsinger Steitz
Recommended by 4 · mentioned by 64 recommend · 6 mention4 recommend · 64 recommend
2009–2026An introduction to systems biology
Uri Alon
Recommended by 9 · mentioned by 109 recommend · 10 mention9 recommend · 109 recommend
2008–2026Molecular Biology of the Cell
Bruce Alberts, Alexander Johnson, Julian Lewis, David O Morgan
Recommended by 49 · mentioned by 7749 recommend · 77 mention49 recommend · 7749 recommend
I highly recommend the book "The Machinery of Life" by David S. Goodsell. It isn't too long, the text is interesting with out getting too bogged down in the details (there simply would be too much to cover in detail), but the highlight is he a professor…
on “Living cells are very fast and crowded places (2012)” ↗See the book "The Machinery of Life", by David S Goodsell, the artist of the first illustration. It's an entire book of such illustrations, ordered to walk the reader though the different processes happening in a cell. I'm not a biologist,…
on “Cells seem to decode their fate through optimal information processing” ↗Synthetic biology seems like a pretty exciting area of study to me. Maybe get a copy of "The Machinery of Life", or "Regenesis". http://www.amazon.com/Machinery-Life-David-S-Goodsell/dp/038... http://www.amazon.com/Regenesis-Synthetic-Biology-Reinvent-O...
on “Ask HN: Does anyone else have the sense that “the good bit is over”?” ↗I'm currently reading through 'The Machinery of Life' by David Goodsell, and I'm really enjoying the intuitive explanations it has of the basic workings of cells. It's not a textbook by any means, but it provides a gentle intro to thinking about biological…
on “Ask HN: Best general Biology book?” ↗If the opening illustration catches your fancy, Goodsell's book "The Machinery of Life" may be a good buy. https://ccsb.scripps.edu/goodsell/machinery-of-life/
on “A journey to the center of our cells” ↗The Machinery of Life [1] is a fantastic book, I was one of those curious laymen and boy did it saturate my thirst for learning about microbiology. I think it's close to the time I read it again. [1] http://www.amazon.com/The-Machinery-Life-David-Goodsell/dp/0...…
on “Scientists discover second code hiding in DNA” ↗…interested in a book covering evolution and biology, but I have not found one, or heard of one, so if anybody knows I would greatly appreciate it. Two good bio books I have read are The Selfish Gene, and The Machinery Of Life (Goodsell), but they're more auxiliary.
on “Structure and Interpretation of Classical Mechanics” ↗I'd say watch the Kahn academy biology videos, his wife is an immunologist or something so it had a big focus on the adaptive immune system. Goodsell's "The Machinery of Life" is really good too, but for molecular bio in general. Those and just random magazine articles, etc. are really the only two things read/watched though, so others may know of some better options.
on “Startup developing HIV/AIDS vaccine is 2nd nonprofit accepted into Y Combinator” ↗On a somewhat similar topic, I also enjoyed "The Machinery of Life" by David Goodsell. Worth it for the diagrams alone.
on “Ask HN: Which book are you reading these days?” ↗Related to this type of animation, there is a great book called "The Machinery of Life" that talks abut molecular level biology with amazing illustrations. https://www.amazon.com/Machinery-Life-David-S-Goodsell/dp/03...
on “The life cycle of HIV in 3D [video]” ↗…this means that it's too tight for large stuff to move around at all. Hence the specialized machinery within the cell that transports large molecules. Source for both: I'm 1/3d of th way through The Machinery of Life[0]. Incidentally, I learned about this book from HN. It's absolutely amazing. The biggest selling point are the drawings - David S. Goodsell created a lot of illustrations (like these[1]) that give you…
on “The life cycle of HIV in 3D [video]” ↗I know of another site doing a Molecule of the Month articles[1] that I currently have in my RSS rotation. As an aside, I wholeheartedly recommend the book "The Machinery of Life"[2] by David Goodsell, the author of that site. The illustrations in the book have the same style as the site I linked, and have the important feature, IMO, of having a consistent scale[3] throughout…
on “Molecule of the Month” ↗Machinery of Life is a fantastic introduction to an intuition for what proteins and the mechanics of their scale. https://www.amazon.com/Machinery-Life-David-S-Goodsell/dp/03...
on “AlphaFold: Using AI for scientific discovery” ↗Not necessarily specifically RNA/DNA but a super accessible description of biology is The Machinery of Life (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6601267-the-machinery-of...). I can't get over much it makes me want to learn more, and as a lay-person, I think it gave me a much better idea of what's going on at…
on “What's a virus, anyway? The bare-bones basics” ↗I think David Goodsell's beautiful paintings, in his book Machinery of Life, were the first serious attempt to depict how crammed a cell is (page down past the pictures of individual molecules to get the the cell cross-sections): https://ccsb.scripps.edu/goodsell/machinery-of-life-reducedi...…
on “What's a virus, anyway? The bare-bones basics” ↗