'One of my favourite science writers' Bill Gates
'Hugely important' Jim Al-Khalili
'A profound meditation on metabolism, the Krebs cycle & the origin of life' Anil Seth
For decades, biology has been dominated by information - the power of genes. Yet there is no difference in information content between a living cell and one that died a moment ago. A better question goes back to the formative years of biology: what processes animate cells and set them apart from lifeless matter?
In Transformer, Nick Lane turns the standard view upside down, capturing an extraordinary scientific renaissance that is hiding in plain sight. At its core is an amazing cycle of reactions that uses energy to transform inorganic molecules into the building blocks of life - and the reverse. To understand this cycle is to fathom the deep coherence of the living world. It connects the origin of life with the devastation of cancer, the first photosynthetic bacteria with our own mitochondria, sulphurous sludges with the emergence of consciousness, and the trivial differences between ourselves with the large-scale history of our planet.
Autorentext
Nick Lane
Klappentext
For decades, biology has been obsessed by information - the power of genes. Yet in information terms there is no difference between a living cell and one that died a moment ago. What really animates cells and set them apart from dead matter? This question goes back to the heroic origins of modern biology. Surprisingly, its answer could turn our picture of life on Earth upside down.
In Transformer, Nick Lane captures a scientific renaissance that is hiding in plain sight. At its core is a cycle of reactions that transform inorganic molecules into the building blocks of life - and the reverse. Discovered in an extraordinary feat of detective work by Hans Krebs, one of the founding geniuses of biochemistry, this the basic process of metabolism across the whole tree of life.
To understand the Krebs Cycle is to fathom at last the deep coherence of biology. It connects the first photosynthetic bacteria with our own peculiar cells. It links the emergence of consciousness with the inevitability of death. And it puts the subtle differences between individuals in the same grand story as the rise of the living world itself.
Life is at root a chemical phenomenon. This is its deep logic.