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Lane 2022 Transformer

From Bioblast
Publications in the MiPMap
Lane Nick (2022) Transformer: the deep chemistry of life and death. Profile Books:400 pp. ISBN-10: 0393651487

Β» nick-lane.net

Lane Nick (2022) Profile Books

Abstract: What brings the Earth to life, and our own lives to an end?

For decades, biology has been dominated by information – the power of genes. Yet in terms of information, there is no difference between a living cell and one that died a moment ago. What really animates cells and sets them apart from non-living matter? This question goes back to the flawed geniuses and heroic origins of modern biology. The 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 transforms inorganic molecules into the building blocks of life, and the reverse – the iconic Krebs cycle that sits at the heart of metabolism. This conflicted merry-go-round of energy and matter has long taunted true understanding. Nick Lane is in the vanguard of scientists now tracing its ramifications across the tree of life.

β€’ Bioblast editor: Gnaiger E

Under 'Further reading'

Erich Gnaiger, Mitochondrial Pathways and Respiratory Control. An Introduction to OXPHOS Analysis (Innsbruck, Bioenergetics Communications, 2020). Available here: http://doi:10.26124/bec:2020-0002. The 'bible' of fluorespirometry, privately published by Erich Gnaiger in the tradition of Peter Mitchell's 'little grey books'; this is the little blue book. Gives practical insights into how the Krebs cycle really works. Introduces the idea of the Q junction, where electrons funnel from many substrates, including glycerol phosphate outside the mitochondria, into complex III.

Labels: MiParea: mt-Awareness 



Enzyme: TCA cycle and matrix dehydrogenases