★A large international scientific and educational research project published in collaboration between the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech), one of Russia’s and even the world’s outstanding education and research centers, and the Russian Science Foundation! The project aims to provide a wide readership with high-level, high-quality, cutting-edge, and interesting scientific content.
★Following “Walking with Mathematicians” and “Dreaming of the Future with Physicists”, “Conversations About Life with a Biologist” is finally presented as the perfect conclusion to this science education project!
★This book brings together over 30 world-leading scientists in the life sciences, allowing readers to enter the world of life scientists and biological science through interviews.
★The research topics of the interviewees are diverse, ranging from studying marine spiny worms to exploring how to pack DNA molecules that are one and a half meters long into tiny cell nuclei, to finding new methods for treating cancer and conducting medical practice.
★The book contains over 30 interviews, accompanied by beautiful images and a detailed index. It is not only for professionals; all readers interested in science can enjoy this book.

“Talking about life with biologists” is a new media project by the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech) and the Russian Science Foundation. We have already taken a walk with mathematicians and dreamed of the future with physicists; this time we decided to gather with biologists and talk about life.
Skoltech’s President, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Kuleshov, writes in the foreword to this book: “ ‘Talking about life with biologists’ is the largest of our three books. We spent two years talking with the authors, collecting this book from these conversations. It includes interviews not only with senior scientists but also with successful young scientists, because biology is a very rapidly developing field, largely a science of the young. We initially hoped these books would be interesting not only to professionals but also to a wide readership, including those somewhat distant from science. In my opinion, by reading these interviews, you first see the authors themselves, understand how they think, how ideas are born, what scientific research work is, the interpersonal relationships in science, and their understanding of their mission.”
This book brings together over 30 world-leading scientists whose research fields are diverse, dedicated to studying the characteristics of life in its different manifestations and organizational levels—from studying marine spiny worms to exploring how to pack DNA molecules that are one and a half meters long into tiny cell nuclei, to finding new methods for treating cancer and conducting medical practice.
The book contains 38 interviews and 2 photo essays. It is accompanied by beautiful images and contains a detailed index. The editors, Inessa Grigalyunene and Nikita Lavrenov, hope this book will provide a wide readership with high-level, high-quality, cutting-edge, and interesting scientific content. It is not only for professionals; all readers interested in science can enjoy this book.

To the Reader
Part One: How We Are Made
Alexander Apt: Tuberculosis: Only Three Tubercle Bacilli Needed
Georgy Bazykin: Everything You Want to Know About the Coronavirus
Mikhail Belyaev: Algorithms are not competitors to doctors, but assistants!
Yelena Vasilyeva: Knowing how to be lazy is very important!
Maria Volkova: How to Defeat Cancer
Raul Gainetdinov: Clues Point to Pharmacology
Vadim Gladyshev: Life Begins with the Onset of Aging
Olga Dontsova: A Scientific Journey Beginning at Age Three
Dmitry Ivankov: Google, Chess, (Not Just) Two Proteins
Mikhail Lebedev: Jennifer Aniston’s Neuron, or Grandma’s Neuron
Leonid Mirny: Unfinished Ideas
Igor Mokrousov: How the Tuberculosis Genome Maps Human History—and Vice Versa
Albert Rizvanov: The Path of Regenerative Medicine and Veterinary Development
Konstantin Severinov: Living Simply, in Principle
Viktor Tarlachev: About Mice and Men: Healthy and Sick
Ilya Timofeev: Surgery-Free Oncology
Maxim Fyodorov: A New Branch of Natural Philosophers
Philipp Khaitovich: Why is the Brain So Complex
Pyotr Khachenko: Expert Digitization: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
Yekaterina Khrameva: How to Fold DNA
Konstantin Chumakov: The Virus Planet and Its Inhabitants
Part Two: How Life Around Us is Made
What is a Scientific Station?
Elizaveta Bonch-Osmolovskaya: Real and Virtual Microbes
Maxim Vinarsky: Esoteric Science, Exact Science, and the Kingdom of Enthusiasts
Mikhail Gelfand: Any Evolution Means Imperfection. It’s Natural
Oleg Gusev: Genetics of Extreme Organisms: Mosquitoes, Crabs, Frogs, and Chickens
Pavel Krestov: A Botanical History of a Cedar Tree
Evgeny Kunin: Things I’d Like to Discuss with Darwin
Alla Lapidus: Genome Assembly Like a History of Life
Maria Logacheva: Evolutionary Genetics Like Escaping a Chasing Bear
Alexander Markov, Yelena Naimark: Paleontology as a Family Business
Evgeny Nikolaev: The Electronic Impact of Truth
Vladimir Onishchenko: Don’t Die Under the Ruins of a Collapsing Biosphere
Ivan Pokrovsky: Flying Through Half the Light—Just Don’t Sleep
Alexey Polilov: The Life of (Very Tiny) Insects
Arkady Savinetsky: Who Killed the Sea Cow?
Yelena Severova: The Dust of Pompeii’s Last Day
Yelena Temereva: Who is Who
Alexander Tzetlin: How Worms Suffocate
Let’s Take a Walk in the Ussuri Taiga
Index