Where did life come from and how does it work? How does a five trillion-cell baby emerge from the union of a sperm and an egg? How do plants convert solar radiation into food? How are the instructions for building every living organism on our planet encoded in a single chemical language of just four "letters"? And finally, what came first, the chicken or the egg?

Reading the book "How Life Works" is a whirlwind, a daring journey into the realm of life. The book highlights the remarkable and surprisingly similar mechanisms of operation of all living beings, from the simplest viruses to the most complex vertebrates.

Each chapter deals with a different general principle:
- Patterns: What are the sixteen basic patterns shared by all living organisms?
- Energy: How do organisms transform energy into vital functions?
- Information: How are the instructions for building millions of different living organisms encoded in the unified, four-letter language of DNA?
- Mechanisms: How are the instructions of DNA transcribed into RNA molecules and then translated into proteins - the functional molecules of life?
- Feedback: How do living organisms know when to increase the production of the products they need and when to decrease it?
- Community: How do our cells manage to form complex communities, resulting in a highly collaborative process that transforms a fertilized egg into a newborn baby?
- Evolution: How do living organisms change and adapt?

It is a book that "helps the teacher rediscover the joy of teaching and the student to experience the magic of learning", but also gives the opportunity "for the curious reader to realize that science is not just obscure definitions, incomprehensible concepts, and polysyllabic words, but also an exciting journey of exploration to unknown and fascinating places, armed with clear thinking and an investigative spirit".