Transformer: The Deep Chemistry of Life and Death

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Thrilling and highly persuasive … This hugely important book is set to become a landmark, transforming our understanding of how life works’ The Shuram conundrum revolves around the evidence that most of the carbon on earth was bound up by sulfate, as shown by the carbon isotope balance in the Shuram formation in Oman. The survivors on the end-Permian extinction were those that had evolved to make use of oxygen and clear out excess CO2 and sulfide. Lane posits that it was at this time that the Kreb's cycle evolved. A living cell and one that just died have the same DNA. Put differently, both cells have precisely the same information content. Just as the flow of people and goods, rather than the arrangement of the buildings, determines that a city is alive, the fluxes of metabolites and energy characterise a living cell. Modern biology is often solely discussed in terms of information. In "Transformer", Lane argues that metabolism is at least as important. This viewpoint of "follow the goods" is also emphasised on a completely different scale by Vaclav Smil in "How the World Really Works". The response to drugs can vary dramatically, depending on a few tiny differences in mitochondrial DNA, with big differences in outcome between males and females. Halpern SD, Ubel PA, Caplan AL, Marion DW, Palmer AM, Schiding JK, et al. Solid-organ transplantation in HIV-infected

The chances of life starting on an oxygenated planet are arguably close to zero: hydrogen must react with CO2 to form organic molecules, but does so very reluctantly if at all in the presence of oxygen Lane has come to believe that the structure of cells is less important than what goes on within them, an idea with both theoretical and practical implications. It challenges the accepted theory of life on Earth emerging from a “primordial soup” on the planet’s surface and instead shifts the genesis to undersea thermal vents. It replaces the buildup of genetic mutations as the cause of aging and cancer with the slowing of cellular activity. And it imagines consciousness as the humming electrical fields of cell membranes.In this compulsively readable book, Lane takes us on a riveting journey, ranging from the flow of energy to new ways of understanding cancer.

A warts-and-all portrait of the famed techno-entrepreneur—and the warts are nearly beyond counting. An] indefatigable exploration of the genesis of biology . . . [Lane] beautifully lays out the sheer improbability of our biosphere, explains why life may be exceedingly rare in our universe, and considers death as a process, not simply as an instantaneous end. An exhilarating account of the biophysics of life, stretching from the first stirrings of living matter to the psychology of consciousness. I felt as if I was there, every step of the way’For more information on the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work Although I love this book, it does inevitably suffer part way through from the problems of a biology book being read by non-biologists. To start with I was carried along with enthusiasm engendered by those stories and Lane's novel presentation, but there are a couple of chapters midway through where the sheer volume of molecules named becomes somewhat overwhelming and I had to fight myself not to skip to a more interesting bit. It's hard to see how this could be avoided - but it does remain an issue. What’s new is that the reactions that make up the Krebs cycle and onwards can occur spontaneously. The Krebs cycle is the engine of life, turning gases into living things. Genes emerged from this metabolic whirl. But now we’re faced with a strange situation: the Krebs cycle simultaneously creates and destroys, giving it a yin and yang that (I argue) still dictates how our genes work, including our risk of diseases. 2. Metabolism gives meaning to genetic information. A thrilling tour of the remarkable stories behind the discoveries of some of life’s key metabolic pathways and mechanisms. [Lane] lays bare the human side of science… The book brings to life the chemistry that brings us to life. Mitochondrial genes tend to evolve much ten to fifty times faster than nuclear genes, as they are copied far more than nuclear genes, and so they accumulate more mutations. A clean-up process in early life sieves out the most detrimental mutations. That’s why mitochondrial diseases directly affect only about 1 in 5,000 of us.