Discovering Our Cells

Our body is made up of four main types of tissues and 200 different types of cells organized into groups, working together, forming the organs and systems of our body. A pathologist, like me, is a doctor who studies tissues and cells under a microscope and has the essential knowledge to identi-fy and describe their diseases. This work is a long, lonely, scientific journey, where hundreds of his-tological images alternate daily in front of our eyes like scenes from a silent movie. This micro-scopic, lonely journey becomes magical when cells inadvertently form images of beauty similar to that found in paintings. Images of childhood memories and drawings, like a flower, a heart, an animal, a toy, shapes and colours changing with every moment, remind us of works of art created with sophistication and devotion by a great artist.

I invite you, my little scientists, to become acquainted with our miraculous inner body, its organs and systems, by discovering the amazing beauty of our cells through the lens of a microscope and to see for yourselves how incredibly beautiful we are inside. If we manage to bring this beauty out into our world it may become a prettier, or even ideal place!!!

The creation of this book was the result of a collective effort between a group of people who worked with me and the publishing house that implemented it. Our common denominator was the magical combination of Science and Art. First of all, I would like to deeply thank, Niki Papatheochari, a diverse and significant personality, who, through her unique work, embodies a picture of perpetual creativity. It is a special honour for me that she prefaced the first edition of my book and contributed valuable advice and inspirational interventions. I thank her for warmly embracing this effort from beginning to end, and for the invaluable knowledge that she generously offered, both as a scientist and as a human being. I wholeheartedly thank the Emeritus Professor of Surgery at the University of Athens Vasileios Golematis, a prominent figure in the global medical and academic community, for prefacing the second edition of my book. Professor Vasileios Golematis, a distinguished scientist and an exceptional man, is a model university teacher and an inexhaustible source of inspiration for his students and colleagues. I would like to warmly thank the medical students Vagia Karapepera, for her wonderful sketches inspired by my lectures in Histology, and Michael Tsierkezos, for setting the book's text to music from which the accompanying video clip emerged. I would also like to thank Eleni Nalbandi for her valuable assistance in editing. Finally, I am really thankful to my family and all those who helped me with their know-how and moral support in completing this original project. Maria Lambropoulou