# Cell Biology by the Numbers by Ron Milo and Rob Philips

Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/cell-biology/

2 people recommended Cell Biology by the Numbers by Ron Milo and Rob Philips in Hacker News comments and none criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 2 of 12 months, in 2 threads. It does not meet the Hacker Approved badge rule.

1 of the 2 people who recommend it commented in one thread, “Size of Life”.

**Verdict:** Recommended for building intuition about cell sizes, measurements and processes through order-of-magnitude calculations.

Summary written from 2 comments.

## Why people recommend it

- Builds intuition about size and measurement (1 comment in the sample): "has a similar intuition-building fun sense about size as well as various other measurements" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46229442))
- Full of order-of-magnitude calculations (1 comment in the sample): "full of order of magnitude calculations of about the processes of the cell" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47960090))

## Other popular science books people recommend

- [Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter](https://hackerapproved.com/p/g-del-escher-bach/): 37 recommend, 9 mixed, 10 criticize
- [The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins](https://hackerapproved.com/p/selfish-gene/): 13 recommend, 1 mixed, 5 criticize
- [Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman](https://hackerapproved.com/p/thinking-fast-and-slow/): 13 recommend, 2 mixed, 13 criticize
- [Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows](https://hackerapproved.com/p/thinking-in-systems/): 13 recommend, 0 mixed, 0 criticize

## The badge

A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged.

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Cell Biology by the Numbers by Ron Milo and Rob Philips", https://hackerapproved.com/p/cell-biology/ (2 recommend, 0 mixed, 0 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026).

Counts updated 3 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.