Transformer

The Deep Chemistry of Life and Death

Nick Lane

• Publisher: Profile Books
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781782834502
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Cell Biology
• Index: Biological Sciences

'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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Praise for Transformer
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction: Life itself
• 1. Discovering the nanocosm
• 2. The path of carbon
• 3. From gases to life
• 4. Revolutions
• 5. To the dark side
• 6. The flux capacitor
• Epilogue: Self
• Envoi: ‘Like Most Revelations’
• Appendix 1: Red protein mechanics
• Appendix 2: The Krebs line
• List of abbreviations
• Further reading
• Acknowledgements
• Index