Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator. That kind of personality pervades the book and makes it, against all odds, consistently fascinating reading. True, Lane’s biochemist zeal often gets the better of him; he often writes some variation of “you can probably see where I’m going with this,” and it’s never actually true. But the gap is never fatal, no matter how many oxidative prongs he hurls at your head.

Tirard, Stephane (20 April 2015). "Abiogenesis". Encyclopedia of Astrobiology. p.1. doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_2-4. ISBN 978-3-642-27833-4. This is a dense book. I read two others by Lane that discuss cellular respiration and its variants. Both cover many of the same points and were challenging but far more accessible. In particular, reading The Vital Question before reading this one was very helpful to me. I recommend it highly for those of us who prefer following fewer chains of chemical reactions and more text aimed at the non-biochemist. My review of The Vital Question covers much of what is in this book, so I will just write some brief notes here. The book is illustrated with 37 figures taken by permission from a wide variety of research sources. They include a timeline, photographs, cladograms, electron flow diagrams and diagrams of the life cycle of cells and their chromosomes. [18] Publication history [ edit ] When I saw this book being offered up on NetGalley, I was particularly interested in the subject, having majored in Biology/Human Anatomy and Physiology in college. Besides, the Kreb’s Cycle (and my favorite organelle, the mighty mitochondria) is one of the most important processes in the human body, one that provides the energy that allows it to hum along. 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’

By Sarah Gristwood

So this chemistry is thermodynamically favored. It’s just these first steps which are recalcitrant, but the electrical charges on the hydrothermal vent seem to lower the barrier to that first step, so the rest can happen. In effect what you have is a continuous flow of hydrothermal fluids going through this electrochemical reaction, converting gases in the environment into more organic molecules, which you can imagine snuggling into the cell-like pores, structuring themselves into cell-like entities and making more of themselves. It’s a very rough form of growth, but it’s lifelike in that sense. But then how did these first proto-cells become independent from the proton gradients they got for free in the hydrothermal vents? Levinson, Gene (2020). Rethinking evolution: the revolution that's hiding in plain sight. World Scientific. ISBN 978-1786347268. Here’s my analogy. You discover oil and design a crude diesel engine. Then you use that engine to help you mine more minerals and oil to make more diesel engines. Then you use those engines to makes things that growth your wealth. Then you use that growth to enable abundant credit. Then you use that credit to invest in complex factories to make computer chips. Then you use those computer chips to make your diesel engine more fuel efficient with less emissions. Transformer is a monstrous tome. And it's even more of a chimera in audiobook form. Having read the author's previous book, The Vital Question, I knew a bit of what to expect, a high-level explanation of an important biochemical process, with all the history, false starts, important scientists and, most crucially, the chemistry behind it. A thrilling tour of the remarkable stories behind the discoveries of some of life’s key metabolic pathways and mechanisms. He lays bare the human side of science… The book brings to life the chemistry that brings us to life. Joseph Moran, Science

It is a shame, then, that his book can be dry at times. There is a lot of nitty-gritty biochemistry – some of it essential, but described in exhausting detail. Get ready to hear an awful lot about succinate, pyruvate and alpha-ketoglutarate.Lane tries hard to imbue these chemicals with personality, but his efforts only go so far. Those who persevere will get a lot out of Transformer, but it is hard work. Lane is among the vanguard of researchers asking why the Krebs cycle, the “perfect circle” at the heart of metabolism, remains so elusive more than eighty years after its discovery. Transformer is Lane’s voyage, as a biochemist, to find the inner meaning of the Krebs cycle―and its reverse―why it is still spinning at the heart of life and death today. Perhaps the only real critique I can make of the book regards the bit at the end about consciousness. Lane’s presentation of the hard problem of consciousness, as well as his argument for electric fields as a causative agent of consciousness, warranted more of a footnote than an epilogue. His arguments here weren’t particularly strong, and I almost think he’d be the first to admit this.the Krebs cycle is really, really old. Not quite as old as life, but as old as oxygen in the atmosphere, at least. As we get older, our respiratory performance declines slowly. The rate of respiration is depressed the most at complex I, the largest and most complex of the respiratory complexes. Complex I is the main source of reactive oxygen species (ROS) from mitochondria, and the rate at which these escape (ROS flux) tends to creep up with age. Also, complex 1 is the only entry point for NADH. So the decline in complex I activity with age means that it’s no longer so easy to oxidise NADH.

Hugely ambitious and tremendously exciting ... Transformer shows how a molecular dance from the dawn of time still sculpts our lives today. I read with rapt attention’ The underlying problem in cancer is an environment that continuously and erroneously shouts ‘grow!’. This toxic environment can be induced by mutations, infections, low oxygen levels … or the decline in metabolism associated with ageing itself. Lane’s foundation for his function-before-form theory seems to be that that cellular process — what’s known as the Krebs cycle — can run in both directions, meaning the cells of some animals are capable of building up materials, not just breaking them down. This somehow leads to the conclusion that these cells had metabolism before they contained genetic information. This is probably the best book on biology (and more specifically biochemistry) that I’ve ever read. Brian Clegg, Popular Science Books For anyone, who has "suffered" through memorizing the Krebs/citric acid cycle as presented in biochemistry, this is the rest of the story. For the conventional dogma is so narrow and incomplete that in maybe only a few exceptional courses, does one get an idea of just how much more there is and how that fits in with the whole picture of metabolism.Another impressive aspect of this book is the way it brings the real scientific method into the spotlight. This is something that science writing tend to over-simplify and treat with almost religious awe. Yet it is undertaken by flawed human beings. In showing how explanations of the Krebs cycle, the workings of mitochondria and more were gradually developed, Lane gives us plenty of stories of human endeavour and how the development of good science is not a straight line to success, but involves detours, misunderstandings and, yes, sometimes human pettiness.