The microscopic cell is Earth’s greatest success story, and the common ancestor we share with all other organisms. Formed over three and a half billion years ago, life exploded from this minuscule powerhouse, first in the sea and then, over millions of years, across the land to create the complex living forms populating the planet today.

How has such a minute organism been so powerful? What has enabled it both to create and to break down life on Earth over billions of years? And how have cells interacted to create such an extraordinary diversity of life? Here, Jack Challoner shines a spotlight on the story of the cell to explore how a myriad of interactions and symbiotic relationships have been the extraordinary catalyst for life.