Christian De Duve was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine, in 1974. He was a professor at the Catholic University of Louvain and at New York’s Rockefeller University. He is notably the author of De Jésus à Jésus… en passant par Darwin, Génétique du péché originel, A l’écoute du vivant and, in 2013, of Sept vies en une, all published by Editions Odile Jacob. He died in May 2013.

In this lengthy final interview the late Christian De Duve, a leading figure in modern biology and a prominent humanist, stepped beyond the boundaries of science to examine, clearly and directly, some of the major issues of our times. Whether his statements are spontaneous or the fruit of long reflection, his ideas are always pertinent and illuminating.
‘I was a scientist. Only later did I ask myself the questions that everyone asks themselves. I had time to think them through and I tried to do so as a rational, free person, endeavouring to impart the result of my reflection with rigour and intellectual honesty,’ said De Duve.

• The retrospective — and also prospective — view on the world of scientific research, by a Nobel Prize laureate in Medicine.
• This is a moving, personal book, the result of a life dedicated to science.
• The final, posthumously published ideas of Christian De Duve, who died in May 2013.