Reviews
A national textbook made by a leading scholar. Recognized leaders in their academic fields often take on a common project: writing a book for the general public. Mankiw wrote Principles of Economics, Hawking published A Brief History of Time, and Brian Greene wrote The End of Time. Other fields have similar examples. I believe this book will hold that place in life science. A book for the general public should be understandable to non-specialists without being oversimplified for young children.
*Song Ki-won's Studying Life* is a life science course for general readers. It answers, step by step, 17 key questions. The reason non-specialists should study life science is simple: its research is closely connected to everyday human life. Recognizing that the 21st century would center on life science and that it could reshape society and the economy, prestigious U.S. universities made biology or life science a required subject for all students. The author, who teaches and researches life
I chose biology for my college entrance exam because I thought it was easy and a good way to earn points. I suspect I felt comfortable choosing it because I never encountered even a basic formula in six years of middle and high school. Perhaps that is why I now find I cannot answer when someone asks about the body or nature, such as photosynthesis. Science is advancing incredibly quickly, including in life science. I may not know what genetic engineering or the genome means, but “life” is
There are many reasons to care about life science. Most recently, COVID-19 made ordinary people learn terms such as antigen and PCR that had been outside their awareness. Knowledge and technology in synthetic biology, gene editing, and cell therapy are spreading rapidly; laboratory research is quickly being applied to drug development and treatment through biotech ventures, and is also connected to stock investment. Since life science affects both markets and people's health, public interest is
The New York Times reported in 2011 that 2045 would be the year humans stopped dying and lived forever. China's First Emperor, Qin Shi Huang, once wandered the world seeking an elixir of immortality. If something similar happened by 2045, could we who live today believe it? Many might hesitate, but rapid advances in genetics and unprecedented infectious disease outbreaks make us wonder whether it could be possible. What does studying life mean to us? The first question may be “What is a human
*Song Ki-won's Studying Life: An Introduction to Life Science Through 17 Questions* Life science is advancing quickly, and my child is interested in a career that requires chemistry and life science, so I try to introduce many science books. Although reading records are no longer included in high school transcripts, older students often read and write reports for assessments that can count toward subject-specific records. My child is still in middle school and has more time to read, so this is
COVID-19 shackled our lives for three and a half years, but it also gave the scientific community wings. As questions about the coronavirus spread, ordinary people moved beyond vague fear and found expert knowledge with a few clicks: what viruses are, how to prevent infection, and how to check whether one might be infected. Public interest and knowledge in life science rose remarkably. An acquaintance who did not study it would ask me the same questions as if for the first time; “Are viruses
Cloning in movies and science fiction, DNA used to identify people in crime dramas, and vaccines against viruses during the pandemic—perhaps these are about all most people know about life science. Though I have read many science books, this is my first that addresses life science directly. I was excited to find a textbook-like introduction that carefully covers the basics. Professor Song Ki-won of Yonsei University's biochemistry department says he wrote it because non-specialists also need to
Life science could become a fertile field that provides the foundations for our country's future industries. Many talented students once applied to it, though interest has waned recently. Given its many possibilities and need for skilled people, it is a discipline well suited to Korea's brightest minds. KOSDAQ, often called the second division of Korea's stock market, is home to many promising biotech companies waiting to make a major leap. For biotech startups to succeed, we must train capable
Countless forms of life live on Earth, and humans are one of them. Life always comes with death, and we wonder how life began, why aging happens, and whether life exists elsewhere in the universe. I never got to study biology in high school and have long wanted to learn more. Through the author's 17 questions, I learned a great deal about life science. Science has advanced to where people dreaming of eternity can imagine connecting the brain to a computer and combining it with AI for a new kind
Song Ki-won: Song Ki-won's Study of Life
Life science has advanced at an extraordinary pace over the past decade. CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology, the so-called genetic scissors, has made it possible to develop a treatment for sickle cell anemia, a genetic disease that has long afflicted humanity. Research into mRNA-based immunotherapies led to the development of vaccines for COVID-19, which sent the world into a panic. Modern life science encompasses everything from basic sciences such as physics and chemistry to information technology and artificial intelligence. It continues to make remarkable progress as an interdisciplinary field reshaping society and civilization in every direction, in academia as well as industry, politics, and the economy. As what we know and can do expands, the scientific mysteries surrounding ‘life’ grow deeper, and their ethical, philosophical, religious, and legal implications become weightier. Song Ki-won’s Life Studies: An Introduction to Life Science Through 17 Questions, published by Science Books Co., Ltd., is a textbook and guide of sorts. It begins with the most fundamental questions in life science and carefully revisits the questions they raise. The book fully conveys the meaning of life science that Professor Song Ki-won, of the Department of Biochemistry in Yonsei University’s College of Life Systems, has explored over a lifetime while grappling seriously with life science and its social implications in Korea. In his earlier book, Song Ki-won’s Post-Genome Era (Science Books, 2018), Professor Song argued that human civilization had already moved beyond the genome era, in which we read the information of life, into the post-genome era, in which we edit and recreate living things. This book steps back from the front lines of modern biology to reflect on the foundations of his own learning. ‘What is life?
Korean title: 송기원의 생명 공부
Korean author: 송기원
Korean publisher: 사이언스북스
ISBN-13: 9791192908083
Reviews
A national textbook made by a leading scholar. Recognized leaders in their academic fields often take on a common project: writing a book for the general public. Mankiw wrote Principles of Economics, Hawking published A Brief History of Time, and Brian Greene wrote The End of Time. Other fields have similar examples. I believe this book will hold that place in life science. A book for the general public should be understandable to non-specialists without being oversimplified for young children.
*Song Ki-won's Studying Life* is a life science course for general readers. It answers, step by step, 17 key questions. The reason non-specialists should study life science is simple: its research is closely connected to everyday human life. Recognizing that the 21st century would center on life science and that it could reshape society and the economy, prestigious U.S. universities made biology or life science a required subject for all students. The author, who teaches and researches life
I chose biology for my college entrance exam because I thought it was easy and a good way to earn points. I suspect I felt comfortable choosing it because I never encountered even a basic formula in six years of middle and high school. Perhaps that is why I now find I cannot answer when someone asks about the body or nature, such as photosynthesis. Science is advancing incredibly quickly, including in life science. I may not know what genetic engineering or the genome means, but “life” is
There are many reasons to care about life science. Most recently, COVID-19 made ordinary people learn terms such as antigen and PCR that had been outside their awareness. Knowledge and technology in synthetic biology, gene editing, and cell therapy are spreading rapidly; laboratory research is quickly being applied to drug development and treatment through biotech ventures, and is also connected to stock investment. Since life science affects both markets and people's health, public interest is
The New York Times reported in 2011 that 2045 would be the year humans stopped dying and lived forever. China's First Emperor, Qin Shi Huang, once wandered the world seeking an elixir of immortality. If something similar happened by 2045, could we who live today believe it? Many might hesitate, but rapid advances in genetics and unprecedented infectious disease outbreaks make us wonder whether it could be possible. What does studying life mean to us? The first question may be “What is a human
*Song Ki-won's Studying Life: An Introduction to Life Science Through 17 Questions* Life science is advancing quickly, and my child is interested in a career that requires chemistry and life science, so I try to introduce many science books. Although reading records are no longer included in high school transcripts, older students often read and write reports for assessments that can count toward subject-specific records. My child is still in middle school and has more time to read, so this is
COVID-19 shackled our lives for three and a half years, but it also gave the scientific community wings. As questions about the coronavirus spread, ordinary people moved beyond vague fear and found expert knowledge with a few clicks: what viruses are, how to prevent infection, and how to check whether one might be infected. Public interest and knowledge in life science rose remarkably. An acquaintance who did not study it would ask me the same questions as if for the first time; “Are viruses
Cloning in movies and science fiction, DNA used to identify people in crime dramas, and vaccines against viruses during the pandemic—perhaps these are about all most people know about life science. Though I have read many science books, this is my first that addresses life science directly. I was excited to find a textbook-like introduction that carefully covers the basics. Professor Song Ki-won of Yonsei University's biochemistry department says he wrote it because non-specialists also need to
Life science could become a fertile field that provides the foundations for our country's future industries. Many talented students once applied to it, though interest has waned recently. Given its many possibilities and need for skilled people, it is a discipline well suited to Korea's brightest minds. KOSDAQ, often called the second division of Korea's stock market, is home to many promising biotech companies waiting to make a major leap. For biotech startups to succeed, we must train capable
Countless forms of life live on Earth, and humans are one of them. Life always comes with death, and we wonder how life began, why aging happens, and whether life exists elsewhere in the universe. I never got to study biology in high school and have long wanted to learn more. Through the author's 17 questions, I learned a great deal about life science. Science has advanced to where people dreaming of eternity can imagine connecting the brain to a computer and combining it with AI for a new kind
