The Serengeti Rules

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by Sean B. Carroll

The topic of a feature film described as "spellbinding" by the New York Times.

What is the mechanism of life? How does the African savanna generate the proper amount of zebras and lions, or the ocean create the right quantity of fish? How do our bodies maintain the proper cell count in our organs and bloodstream? Sean Carroll, an award-winning biologist and author, relates the story of the pioneering scientists who sought answers to such simple yet profoundly significant questions in his book The Serengeti Rules, and demonstrates how their discoveries affect human health and the health of the world we rely on.

One of the most significant discoveries about the natural world is that everything is controlled. There are laws that govern the amount of each molecule in our body, as well as the quantities of animals and plants in the wild. The most astonishing finding regarding the principles that govern life at such disparate scales is that they are strikingly similar, implying that there is a shared underlying logic to life. Carroll describes how our profound understanding of the laws and logic of the human body has led to the development of breakthrough life-saving drugs, and argues that it is now time to apply the Serengeti Rules to cure our sick Earth.

The Serengeti Rules is the first book to describe how life works at dramatically different scales, and it is a daring and inspirational synthesis by one of our most talented scientists and great storytellers. You will never look at the world the same way after reading it.

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Our favourite quote from The Serengeti Rules

The metropolitan area of one-half million people was brought to a standstill. Restaurants, public buildings, and even the city zoo closed. People quickly bought up whatever bottled water was on store shelves. The governor of Ohio declared a state of emergency. The National Guard was enlisted to truck in water and portable water treatment plants. The national and international news media covered the story of a modern American city without the 80 million gallons of water it needed daily. It was not the sort of attention the long-struggling, rust-belt city wanted.

Book Summary

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The metropolitan area of one-half million people was brought to a standstill. Restaurants, public buildings, and even the city zoo closed. People quickly bought up whatever bottled water was on store shelves. The governor of Ohio declared a state of emergency. The National Guard was enlisted to truck in water and portable water treatment plants. The national and international news media covered the story of a modern American city without the 80 million gallons of water it needed daily. It was not the sort of attention the long-struggling, rust-belt city wanted.

— Sean B. Carroll, The Serengeti Rules