Your body has trillions of cells, and each one has the complexity and dynamism of a city. Your life, your thoughts, your diseases, and your health are all the function of cells.

But what do you really know about what goes on inside you?

The last time most people thought about cells in any detail was probably in high school or a college general biology class. But the field of cell biology has advanced incredibly rapidly in recent decades, and a great deal of what we may have learned in high school and college is no longer accurate or particularly relevant.

The Cell: Inside the Microscopic World that Determines Our Health, Our Consciousness, and Our Future is a fascinating story of the incredible complexity and dynamism inside the cell and of the fantastic advancements in our understanding of this microscopic world.

Dr. Joshua Z. Rappoport is at the forefront of this field, and he will take you on a journey to discover:

A deeper understanding of how cells work and the basic nature of life on earth.
Fascinating histories of some of the key discoveries from the seventeenth century to the last decade and provocative thoughts on the current state of academic research.
The knowledge required to better understand the new developments that are announced almost weekly in science and health care, such as cancer, cellular therapies, and the potential promise of stem cells.
The ability to make better decisions about health and to debunk the misinformation that comes in daily via media.

Using the latest scientific research, The Cell illustrates the diversity of cell biology and what it all means for your everyday life.

Dr. Joshua Z. Rappoport received a bachelor's degree in Biology from Brown University and then went on to earn a Ph.D. from the Program in Mechanisms of Disease and Therapeutics at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine Graduate School of Biological Sciences of New York University. Following defense of his thesis Dr. Rappoport went on to perform postdoctoral work at The Rockefeller University in New York City in the Laboratory of Cellular Biophysics. Subsequently he was recruited as a tenured faculty member in the School of Biosciences at the University of Birmingham in England.

In 2014 Dr. Rappoport has returned to the United States where he is currently the Director of the Center for Advanced Microscopy and Nikon Imaging Center at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and a faculty member in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology. Dr. Rappoport's scientific perspective aims to develop and apply cutting edge microscopy to address fundamental questions in cell biology.

Dr. Rappoport lives in Chicago with his wife Ema, a neuroscientist, and their dog Kris.