The Earth is a green planet and its plants are the basis of life. From the smallest moss to the tallest giant sequoia, from the canopy of bluebells in a spring forest to the fall colors of New England, its diversity, success and ubiquity are evident. However, few of us notice the microscopic building blocks of this empire, the cells.

In Green Universe, eminent botanist Stephen Blackmore takes us on a journey through time and space—from the origin of the first cell more than three billion years ago, through its complex and tangled history, to the myriads of forms existing today, and to the perfectly adapted organs and organisms made up of cells.

The author skillfully weaves the history of life on Earth with our quest to understand the cell through the invention and development of the microscope. He shows us how plant cells, in addition to being beautiful, are also, thanks to photosynthesis, the energy centers of life on Earth. Although we cannot live without them, we tend to think that they are always present, as if they were all more or less the same, when nothing could be further from the truth. The more closely we observe the world around us, the better we can understand our own place in the complex web of life.