In the fifteenth century, while astronomers were discovering the heavens and explorers were mapping the globe, scientist Robert Hooke discovered that everything that lives on Earth—from animals to plants, algae to fungi—is made up of cells. Two centuries later, Charles Darwin proposed that all cells on Earth originate from the same common ancestral cell: LUCA (Last Universal Common Ancestor).Understanding how LUCA appeared billions of years ago and evolved to form all organisms is a fascinating journey through history, biology, and what it means to be alive. Combining art with science, biologist and illustrator Christian Sardet breaks down DNA, RNA, protists, viruses, cell reproduction and death, and more.Cells