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I motori della vita. Come i microbi hanno reso la Terra abitabile
Per quattro miliardi di anni la Terra è stata abitata solamente dai microbi. Nel brodo primordiale non c'era altro, e il nostro pianeta, in tutto quel lungo periodo, era molto diverso dal luogo caldo e ospitale che conosciamo oggi.
Per un lungo, lunghissimo periodo di tempo i microrganismi hanno svolto il loro meticoloso, ostinato, instancabile lavorìo biochimico grazie alle loro sofisticatissime nanomacchine biologiche, trasformando radicalmente in milioni di anni la composizione chimica del pianeta e rendendo in questo modo la Terra abitabile anche per le altre forme di vita, esseri umani compresi, che senza i microbi non avrebbero mai potuto evolversi.
"I motori della vita" è il libro che ci racconta come sia potuta accadere questa improbabile meraviglia e ci mostra come, ancora oggi, senza i microbi la vita sarebbe del tutto impossibile. Tutti i cicli biogeochimici degli elementi, tutti quei grandiosi movimenti che fanno circolare a livello planetario le sostanze necessarie alla vita, passano necessariamente in un modo o nell'altro dal macchinario cellulare dei batteri.
È all'interno degli apparati citoplasmatici di queste creature che avvengono i passaggi cruciali che permettono a tutto il mondo vivente di continuare indefinitamente il proprio cammino nel mondo, tanto che per potersi evolvere gli organismi superiori sono stati costretti a inglobare nelle loro cellule proprio questi piccoli miracoli di efficienza biologica, in una simbiosi vincente che dura ormai da centinaia di milioni di anni.
Per un lungo, lunghissimo periodo di tempo i microrganismi hanno svolto il loro meticoloso, ostinato, instancabile lavorìo biochimico grazie alle loro sofisticatissime nanomacchine biologiche, trasformando radicalmente in milioni di anni la composizione chimica del pianeta e rendendo in questo modo la Terra abitabile anche per le altre forme di vita, esseri umani compresi, che senza i microbi non avrebbero mai potuto evolversi.
"I motori della vita" è il libro che ci racconta come sia potuta accadere questa improbabile meraviglia e ci mostra come, ancora oggi, senza i microbi la vita sarebbe del tutto impossibile. Tutti i cicli biogeochimici degli elementi, tutti quei grandiosi movimenti che fanno circolare a livello planetario le sostanze necessarie alla vita, passano necessariamente in un modo o nell'altro dal macchinario cellulare dei batteri.
È all'interno degli apparati citoplasmatici di queste creature che avvengono i passaggi cruciali che permettono a tutto il mondo vivente di continuare indefinitamente il proprio cammino nel mondo, tanto che per potersi evolvere gli organismi superiori sono stati costretti a inglobare nelle loro cellule proprio questi piccoli miracoli di efficienza biologica, in una simbiosi vincente che dura ormai da centinaia di milioni di anni.
228 pages, Hardcover
First published April 26, 2015
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February 4, 2016
This is an excellent book by an active researcher in the field of microbes. There is no cloying humor in the book. It is just a down-to-earth, well-written book about microbes and their role in making life possible on this planet.
And I learned a lot from the book! I learned how the earliest microbes developed, and how different they were from those that are alive today. The earth's atmosphere went through several evolutions as life evolved. In fact, the composition of a planet's atmosphere is a key indicator of the status of life on the planet. In the last chapter, Falkowski writes about the possibility of life on other worlds. He describes astronomical observations that could yield indirect evidence of microbes living on planets outside of our own solar system.
I learned that Alexander Graham Bell first discovered the photoacoustic effect. He invented the "photophone" in 1880, to generate sound waves from light. And that mechanism can be used today, to listen to photosynthesis! The process of photosynthesis is very efficient; 50% of the energy of light is converted to electrical energy. This is much more efficient than the best solar cells.
I learned about the horizontal transfer of genes among microbes. Falkowski gives an example of this mechanism. He claims that Japanese people digest seaweed better than Caucasians, because the microbes in their guts have acquired this capability through horizontal transfer.
There is a fascinating description of the very first animal, the sponge. Sponges live stationary, in place, but filter a large volume of water through their bodies. To do this they use flagella, but the mechanism that allows the flagella to act in unison is a mystery because sponges do not have a nervous system. Thousands of microbes live in symbioses in the sponge's pores. Some of the microbes aid in the sponge's nutrition, while others produce toxic chemicals that keep predators away.
Falkowski writes about how laboratories are tinkering with the genetic sequences of microbes. This is very dangerous, because researchers still have a poor understanding of how microbes work. There is a potential disaster.
What I like best about this type of book, is the energy and credible authority that an active researcher is able to put into his writing. Falkowski gives clear explanations that are within the grasp of a layman like me. (I am not an expert in biology.) The book is filled with diagrams and photographs that help give life to the text (is this pun intended?). I highly recommend this book to everyone interested in biology and the early evolution of life.
And I learned a lot from the book! I learned how the earliest microbes developed, and how different they were from those that are alive today. The earth's atmosphere went through several evolutions as life evolved. In fact, the composition of a planet's atmosphere is a key indicator of the status of life on the planet. In the last chapter, Falkowski writes about the possibility of life on other worlds. He describes astronomical observations that could yield indirect evidence of microbes living on planets outside of our own solar system.
I learned that Alexander Graham Bell first discovered the photoacoustic effect. He invented the "photophone" in 1880, to generate sound waves from light. And that mechanism can be used today, to listen to photosynthesis! The process of photosynthesis is very efficient; 50% of the energy of light is converted to electrical energy. This is much more efficient than the best solar cells.
I learned about the horizontal transfer of genes among microbes. Falkowski gives an example of this mechanism. He claims that Japanese people digest seaweed better than Caucasians, because the microbes in their guts have acquired this capability through horizontal transfer.
There is a fascinating description of the very first animal, the sponge. Sponges live stationary, in place, but filter a large volume of water through their bodies. To do this they use flagella, but the mechanism that allows the flagella to act in unison is a mystery because sponges do not have a nervous system. Thousands of microbes live in symbioses in the sponge's pores. Some of the microbes aid in the sponge's nutrition, while others produce toxic chemicals that keep predators away.
Falkowski writes about how laboratories are tinkering with the genetic sequences of microbes. This is very dangerous, because researchers still have a poor understanding of how microbes work. There is a potential disaster.
What I like best about this type of book, is the energy and credible authority that an active researcher is able to put into his writing. Falkowski gives clear explanations that are within the grasp of a layman like me. (I am not an expert in biology.) The book is filled with diagrams and photographs that help give life to the text (is this pun intended?). I highly recommend this book to everyone interested in biology and the early evolution of life.
September 3, 2018
Falkowski’s relatively brief, but very informative book shows how his beloved microbes shaped the environment and the flow of evolution. He begins reviewing some of the history of the scientific discovery of microbial life. He offers short pieces on the contributions of scientists such as Darwin and Robert Hooke and inventors like Leeuwenhoek whose microscopes opened a new world. He recounts salient events in microbial development from the earliest known life some 3.4 billion years ago to oxygen producing bacteria and eukaryotes, the domain of life to which the plant and animal kingdoms belong.
He is fascinated by the biochemistry that makes life possible. He explains different types of cellular respiration and photosynthesis and how these processes interacted with the environment to influence the flow of evolution. He is enamored with the sophistication of the cellular nanomachines that execute these functions. He explains how features of single celled life were used in the transition to multicellular organisms. Lastly he opines on the future, the advent of synthetic biology which he regards as dangerous and the likelihood of life on other planets. He believes the existence of intelligent life on other planets is rare.
This book jumps between two levels of difficulty. Many sections such as those on history and the future are accessible to a wide audience. Other sections particularly those describing biochemical processes may be considered dry and daunting by some. They require effort (at least they did for me) as well as interest in and and some familiarity with the topic. However, I do think these parts could be skimmed and the main messages of the book still appreciated. Two books that make excellent compliments to this one are Robert Hazen’s The Story of Earth: The First 4.5 Billion Years, from Stardust to Living Planet and Nick Lane’s Power Sex and Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life. My notes follow.
Free oxygen first became available in the atmosphere about 2.4 billion years ago in what is called the Great Oxidation Event. This oxygen came from cyanobacteria. Through photosynthesis these bacteria used the sun’s rays to cleave water molecules freeing the hydrogen for carbohydrate production and discarding the oxygen. Falkowski figures it took about 300 million years for the cyanobacteria to increase the oxygen in the earth’s atmosphere to 1%. Today it is 21%. A second singularly important event for the development of complex life took place about 1.5 billion years ago. This was the assimilation of a bacterium by an archaeon. The bacteria became what we know as mitochondria and the new cells were eukaryotes. Eukaryotes could contain multiple mitochondria and leverage their ability to produce energy through cellular respiration that required free oxygen. This increased energy gave eukaryotes advantages that would be important to the development of complex life forms. Cyanobacteria, photosynthesis and the creation of mitochondria all had a dramatic impact on the evolution of life on earth. Throughout, Falkowski points to many such events and conditions.
Not only water can be divided to free hydrogen, so can hydrogen sulfide which is prevalent in deep sea vents and requires much less energy to split. Interestingly the microbes oxidizing hydrogen sulfide still require free oxygen as part of the process. Other microbes strip hydrogen from ammonia also using free oxygen. The oxygen used by these microbes along with the oxygen used to oxidize the abundant iron on earth help explain why it took 300 million years to reach 1% oxygen in the atmosphere. Actually, the first photosynthetic bacteria appeared several hundred million years before cyanobacteria. But these anoxygenic bacteria did not split water to get hydrogen, did not produce free oxygen and were only photosynthetic in the absence of oxygen. These are only a few examples of the ways microbes have extracted energy from their environment. Falkowski shows us the amazing adaptability of microbes.
Over two billion years ago a cyanobacterium that was engulfed by another organism became a chloroplast spreading the ability to transform the suns energy into organic nutrients. Endosymbiosis is the term used to describe the genesis of both mitochondria and chloroplasts, although endosymbiosis does not always result in the creation of a new organelle. To do so requires a lot of coordination between the host and captive. To accomplish this DNA is transferred from the captive to the host. Chloroplasts and mitochondria only retain the DNA related to their functions. This highlights a well-known capability of bacteria, the ability to horizontally transfer genes between individuals, even those not related. Drug resistant bacteria are an example.
Another capability involved in endosymbiotic coordination is called retrograde sensing which is very similar to the emergent property of quorum sensing. Quorum sensing is how microbes communicate with each other. They send out chemical signals to know which other microbes are around and how many. Microbes will alter their behavior in response. This allows microbes to operate as communities called consortia where they exchange and share resources. One microbe may excrete a sugar that is used by another that excretes an amino acid that is used by another and on and on. Given the chemistry of the varied metabolisms of the microbes, the community “is in effect, a miniature biological electron marketplace.” Consortia can be extremely complex containing hundreds of different species of microbes. Microbes are social. They are competitive yet usually work together for the common good. They also work with us. We have such a community in our guts.
About six hundred million years ago the first multicellular creatures evolved. A rise in atmospheric oxygen levels made adequate oxygen diffusion through multiple cell layers possible. Some microbial tools could now be put to use to create the animal kingdom. Cell differentiation had occurred before in microbes. In chains of cyanobacteria some cells give up their photosynthetic function, even though they retain the genes to do so. They change size and the thickness of their cell walls, becoming nitrogen fixing bacteria producing ammonia for the benefit of the colony. Sex also came earlier. Some single celled eukaryotes split their genome in half creating “spores” that would combine to form a new individual. Animals and plants took advantage of tools already developed by microbes. Take one of the oldest animals, the sponge. Cells in the interiors of sponges beat their flagella in coordination to move water through the sponge as they filter feed for the colony. These cells are very similar to single cell organisms, choanoflagellates, which filter feed individually or stuck together in simple colonies. Choanoflagellates are the closest relatives of animals. The sponge also provides a haven for many different microbes that live in symbiosis providing nutrients or even toxins to ward off predators.
Animals did not have to create new genes. They modified ones from microbes such as those that enable microbes to propel themselves through the water. Even taste, smell and vision have microbial analogues. Microbes have electrical membranes for energy production, but animals went far beyond developing a neuronal electrical network and a brain. However the brainiest animal may not be the steward of earth that microbes have been. Every year we burn fossil fuels that took a million years to create. If we continue as we have catastrophic climate change could result. In laboratories around the world we are using our brains to tinker with genes in microbes to create new life forms to solve our problems with pollution and agriculture. In this endeavor called synthetic biology Falkowski believes, “We don’t understand what we are doing.” Microbes made the world habitable for us. If somehow we disrupt that world it could be disastrous. But microbes are very diverse and adaptable and likely will survive and rebalance the planet with or without us.
He is fascinated by the biochemistry that makes life possible. He explains different types of cellular respiration and photosynthesis and how these processes interacted with the environment to influence the flow of evolution. He is enamored with the sophistication of the cellular nanomachines that execute these functions. He explains how features of single celled life were used in the transition to multicellular organisms. Lastly he opines on the future, the advent of synthetic biology which he regards as dangerous and the likelihood of life on other planets. He believes the existence of intelligent life on other planets is rare.
This book jumps between two levels of difficulty. Many sections such as those on history and the future are accessible to a wide audience. Other sections particularly those describing biochemical processes may be considered dry and daunting by some. They require effort (at least they did for me) as well as interest in and and some familiarity with the topic. However, I do think these parts could be skimmed and the main messages of the book still appreciated. Two books that make excellent compliments to this one are Robert Hazen’s The Story of Earth: The First 4.5 Billion Years, from Stardust to Living Planet and Nick Lane’s Power Sex and Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life. My notes follow.
Free oxygen first became available in the atmosphere about 2.4 billion years ago in what is called the Great Oxidation Event. This oxygen came from cyanobacteria. Through photosynthesis these bacteria used the sun’s rays to cleave water molecules freeing the hydrogen for carbohydrate production and discarding the oxygen. Falkowski figures it took about 300 million years for the cyanobacteria to increase the oxygen in the earth’s atmosphere to 1%. Today it is 21%. A second singularly important event for the development of complex life took place about 1.5 billion years ago. This was the assimilation of a bacterium by an archaeon. The bacteria became what we know as mitochondria and the new cells were eukaryotes. Eukaryotes could contain multiple mitochondria and leverage their ability to produce energy through cellular respiration that required free oxygen. This increased energy gave eukaryotes advantages that would be important to the development of complex life forms. Cyanobacteria, photosynthesis and the creation of mitochondria all had a dramatic impact on the evolution of life on earth. Throughout, Falkowski points to many such events and conditions.
Not only water can be divided to free hydrogen, so can hydrogen sulfide which is prevalent in deep sea vents and requires much less energy to split. Interestingly the microbes oxidizing hydrogen sulfide still require free oxygen as part of the process. Other microbes strip hydrogen from ammonia also using free oxygen. The oxygen used by these microbes along with the oxygen used to oxidize the abundant iron on earth help explain why it took 300 million years to reach 1% oxygen in the atmosphere. Actually, the first photosynthetic bacteria appeared several hundred million years before cyanobacteria. But these anoxygenic bacteria did not split water to get hydrogen, did not produce free oxygen and were only photosynthetic in the absence of oxygen. These are only a few examples of the ways microbes have extracted energy from their environment. Falkowski shows us the amazing adaptability of microbes.
Over two billion years ago a cyanobacterium that was engulfed by another organism became a chloroplast spreading the ability to transform the suns energy into organic nutrients. Endosymbiosis is the term used to describe the genesis of both mitochondria and chloroplasts, although endosymbiosis does not always result in the creation of a new organelle. To do so requires a lot of coordination between the host and captive. To accomplish this DNA is transferred from the captive to the host. Chloroplasts and mitochondria only retain the DNA related to their functions. This highlights a well-known capability of bacteria, the ability to horizontally transfer genes between individuals, even those not related. Drug resistant bacteria are an example.
Another capability involved in endosymbiotic coordination is called retrograde sensing which is very similar to the emergent property of quorum sensing. Quorum sensing is how microbes communicate with each other. They send out chemical signals to know which other microbes are around and how many. Microbes will alter their behavior in response. This allows microbes to operate as communities called consortia where they exchange and share resources. One microbe may excrete a sugar that is used by another that excretes an amino acid that is used by another and on and on. Given the chemistry of the varied metabolisms of the microbes, the community “is in effect, a miniature biological electron marketplace.” Consortia can be extremely complex containing hundreds of different species of microbes. Microbes are social. They are competitive yet usually work together for the common good. They also work with us. We have such a community in our guts.
About six hundred million years ago the first multicellular creatures evolved. A rise in atmospheric oxygen levels made adequate oxygen diffusion through multiple cell layers possible. Some microbial tools could now be put to use to create the animal kingdom. Cell differentiation had occurred before in microbes. In chains of cyanobacteria some cells give up their photosynthetic function, even though they retain the genes to do so. They change size and the thickness of their cell walls, becoming nitrogen fixing bacteria producing ammonia for the benefit of the colony. Sex also came earlier. Some single celled eukaryotes split their genome in half creating “spores” that would combine to form a new individual. Animals and plants took advantage of tools already developed by microbes. Take one of the oldest animals, the sponge. Cells in the interiors of sponges beat their flagella in coordination to move water through the sponge as they filter feed for the colony. These cells are very similar to single cell organisms, choanoflagellates, which filter feed individually or stuck together in simple colonies. Choanoflagellates are the closest relatives of animals. The sponge also provides a haven for many different microbes that live in symbiosis providing nutrients or even toxins to ward off predators.
Animals did not have to create new genes. They modified ones from microbes such as those that enable microbes to propel themselves through the water. Even taste, smell and vision have microbial analogues. Microbes have electrical membranes for energy production, but animals went far beyond developing a neuronal electrical network and a brain. However the brainiest animal may not be the steward of earth that microbes have been. Every year we burn fossil fuels that took a million years to create. If we continue as we have catastrophic climate change could result. In laboratories around the world we are using our brains to tinker with genes in microbes to create new life forms to solve our problems with pollution and agriculture. In this endeavor called synthetic biology Falkowski believes, “We don’t understand what we are doing.” Microbes made the world habitable for us. If somehow we disrupt that world it could be disastrous. But microbes are very diverse and adaptable and likely will survive and rebalance the planet with or without us.
March 30, 2016
This quickly moved to the top of my favorite science booklist.
I am drawn to books about microbes and the origins of life. Some examples of the books this topped are:
Nick Lane's Life Ascending ( I am in the process of reading The Vital Question by Lane)
Sean Carroll's (physicist) The Particle at the End of the Universe
Sean Carroll's (biologist) Endless Forms Most Beautiful
Caleb Scharf's Gravity's Engines
Max Tegmark's Our Mathematical Universe
Lucretius' On the Nature of Things
I moved slowly through this book, savoring certain chapters (2-8). I took copious notes so that I can refer back to them later. This was necessary because I believe this book to be a seminal work on how the world operates. The depth of understanding Falkowski bestows upon his reader will help them understand their host planet on a fundamental level.
Do you want to understand your planet as one big organism? Then read this book. Every chapter is packed so tightly with an abundance of information about microbes: how they are connected to one another, to groups of microbes, to plants and animals (including humans), and to the earth at large.
In this book you will learn the langue microbes use to communicate. Think humans are the most intelligent species on the planet? Think again. You will also learn the wonderful story of how mitochondria evolved. Lest you think you have heard it before as Nick Lane or Lynn Margulis tells it, you will undoubted hear a new tale. Falkowski's idea of mitochondria as a "nutrient trap" and not a workhorse is nothing short of revolutionary. Sheer brilliance!
Chapter Eight, Supersizing in Wonderland, was a particular treat. The evolution of opsins, which was a treasure buried in a few paragraphs, should have come with a drumroll. If you want to understand your place on Earth, in the vast solar system, and universe at large, read this chapter and think about the role of opsins in the prokaryote and single-celled eukaryote. There is no greater example of how the sun and Earth work together to create and sustain living organisms. Falkowski doesn't simply bring to this book new insights and new theories; he also puts together old information in a new way, so that the reader can really see it and appreciate its significance.
I plan to now scour the internet for all of his talks. I want to know everything he is willing to share. LOVE HIM!
I am drawn to books about microbes and the origins of life. Some examples of the books this topped are:
Nick Lane's Life Ascending ( I am in the process of reading The Vital Question by Lane)
Sean Carroll's (physicist) The Particle at the End of the Universe
Sean Carroll's (biologist) Endless Forms Most Beautiful
Caleb Scharf's Gravity's Engines
Max Tegmark's Our Mathematical Universe
Lucretius' On the Nature of Things
I moved slowly through this book, savoring certain chapters (2-8). I took copious notes so that I can refer back to them later. This was necessary because I believe this book to be a seminal work on how the world operates. The depth of understanding Falkowski bestows upon his reader will help them understand their host planet on a fundamental level.
Do you want to understand your planet as one big organism? Then read this book. Every chapter is packed so tightly with an abundance of information about microbes: how they are connected to one another, to groups of microbes, to plants and animals (including humans), and to the earth at large.
In this book you will learn the langue microbes use to communicate. Think humans are the most intelligent species on the planet? Think again. You will also learn the wonderful story of how mitochondria evolved. Lest you think you have heard it before as Nick Lane or Lynn Margulis tells it, you will undoubted hear a new tale. Falkowski's idea of mitochondria as a "nutrient trap" and not a workhorse is nothing short of revolutionary. Sheer brilliance!
Chapter Eight, Supersizing in Wonderland, was a particular treat. The evolution of opsins, which was a treasure buried in a few paragraphs, should have come with a drumroll. If you want to understand your place on Earth, in the vast solar system, and universe at large, read this chapter and think about the role of opsins in the prokaryote and single-celled eukaryote. There is no greater example of how the sun and Earth work together to create and sustain living organisms. Falkowski doesn't simply bring to this book new insights and new theories; he also puts together old information in a new way, so that the reader can really see it and appreciate its significance.
I plan to now scour the internet for all of his talks. I want to know everything he is willing to share. LOVE HIM!
January 20, 2022
The author is very good at explaining complex concepts in easy to understand ways. He starts by telling the listener that the nature of science advances by recognizing patterns and then developing tools for finding those patterns.
Microbes (and all life) contain nano-machines which get their energy from electrons or elements available from the environment and converts that into the universal currency of life, ATP, which every living organism on the planet possesses for its energy source (with maybe just minor exceptions). The author states that there are 1500 or so core genes which most of life share in fundamental ways. He'll step the listener through the steps necessary for creating an oxygen rich atmosphere on earth thus allowing for endosymbiosis (a very specific type of horizontal gene transference) which leads to the development of eukaryotic cells (cells with nucleus). (The author doesn't mention it, but it's possible that the subsuming of the mitochondria by an archaea was a one time only event and can be one of the large filters which helps explain the Fermi Paradox, the reason why we might be alone in the universe. See, microbes are incredibly interesting!).
Very rarely do I come across a popular science book where the author knows how to tell a story as clearly as this author did. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in understanding our place in the universe.
Microbes (and all life) contain nano-machines which get their energy from electrons or elements available from the environment and converts that into the universal currency of life, ATP, which every living organism on the planet possesses for its energy source (with maybe just minor exceptions). The author states that there are 1500 or so core genes which most of life share in fundamental ways. He'll step the listener through the steps necessary for creating an oxygen rich atmosphere on earth thus allowing for endosymbiosis (a very specific type of horizontal gene transference) which leads to the development of eukaryotic cells (cells with nucleus). (The author doesn't mention it, but it's possible that the subsuming of the mitochondria by an archaea was a one time only event and can be one of the large filters which helps explain the Fermi Paradox, the reason why we might be alone in the universe. See, microbes are incredibly interesting!).
Very rarely do I come across a popular science book where the author knows how to tell a story as clearly as this author did. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in understanding our place in the universe.
April 11, 2016
2.5 Stars
I love biochemistry and microbes, but I didn't love this book. I found it tedious and somewhat superficial, which was surprising considering the amount of interesting information contained within the pages. I also did not learn as much new "stuff" as I had hoped, since most of the contents I have come across in other books. Life's Engines would probably function better as an introductory text to the subject, but may also be too complicated for readers who know nothing about things such as electron transfers, nitrogen fixation, ATP and genetics.
I found that the following two books dealing with microbes appealed to me more than Life's Engines by Paul G. Falkowski:
The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health; and
March of the Microbes: Sighting the Unseen.
I love biochemistry and microbes, but I didn't love this book. I found it tedious and somewhat superficial, which was surprising considering the amount of interesting information contained within the pages. I also did not learn as much new "stuff" as I had hoped, since most of the contents I have come across in other books. Life's Engines would probably function better as an introductory text to the subject, but may also be too complicated for readers who know nothing about things such as electron transfers, nitrogen fixation, ATP and genetics.
I found that the following two books dealing with microbes appealed to me more than Life's Engines by Paul G. Falkowski:
The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health; and
March of the Microbes: Sighting the Unseen.
July 11, 2017
This is an accessible book, crystal-clear about all the concepts it discusses. It’s not bad as a revision guide for me, as far as some of my cell bio concepts go; it’d be good for an intelligent layperson. Falkowski writes with assurance, and though there were no surprises here for me, it was still an interesting read.
My only qualm would be that sometimes his choice of words is a little cringy to me. We don’t need “cell stuff”; I’m sure all readers at this level could manage the term “nutrients” or “proteins” or something clearer. Which is funny, given I just said he’s crystal clear — it’s not that the words are confusing, it’s just that they don’t actually make things simpler and easier to understand. They don’t actively obscure, but they do the reader no favours either.
Nonetheless, a book I enjoyed reading.
Reviewed for The Bibliophibian.
My only qualm would be that sometimes his choice of words is a little cringy to me. We don’t need “cell stuff”; I’m sure all readers at this level could manage the term “nutrients” or “proteins” or something clearer. Which is funny, given I just said he’s crystal clear — it’s not that the words are confusing, it’s just that they don’t actually make things simpler and easier to understand. They don’t actively obscure, but they do the reader no favours either.
Nonetheless, a book I enjoyed reading.
Reviewed for The Bibliophibian.
January 25, 2016
How the hell did we get here is a question fairly asked by a human. Paul Falkowksi answers that question as in pertains to how we literally, physically, biologically evolved to be humans asking this question.
Understating history is crucial to understanding the current state of anything and Falkowski takes us all the way back to a time insanely ignored in most discussions of evolution, the 2 billion years before the first animal and plant life emerged on Earth. This is the time when life began. The first life to evolve was that of microbes After reading this book I feel like I should be capitalizing them as Microbes! They established the engines which continue to form and power every form of life today.
Falkowski is never pedantic in his delivery, he explains every step with relish and a fascination which in his telling is contagious. The story of how life emerged is the story of our lineage, it is about us so how can it not be interesting? It is hard to add perspective to subjects like the vast distances of space or in this case time spans in which dinosaurs are recent and familiar relatives. This book does not shy away from that challenge. It is vital to understand the story of microbes if a person wants to understand how we got here, by what processes is it that we are alive and conscious.
Understating history is crucial to understanding the current state of anything and Falkowski takes us all the way back to a time insanely ignored in most discussions of evolution, the 2 billion years before the first animal and plant life emerged on Earth. This is the time when life began. The first life to evolve was that of microbes After reading this book I feel like I should be capitalizing them as Microbes! They established the engines which continue to form and power every form of life today.
Falkowski is never pedantic in his delivery, he explains every step with relish and a fascination which in his telling is contagious. The story of how life emerged is the story of our lineage, it is about us so how can it not be interesting? It is hard to add perspective to subjects like the vast distances of space or in this case time spans in which dinosaurs are recent and familiar relatives. This book does not shy away from that challenge. It is vital to understand the story of microbes if a person wants to understand how we got here, by what processes is it that we are alive and conscious.
March 22, 2016
Really an excellent book. For a subject that can seem a bit dry, Falkowski brings an energy and clarity of thought that is infectious.
It's been a while since I've brushed up on my chemistry, so at times I struggled a bit, but overall the explanations were very very good, even for a lay person like myself. I particularly liked his descriptions of cell biology, cell mechanics, nanomachines within our cells and how they were shaped by evolution. One thought that stayed with me, once evolution has developed a certain framework, say the nanomachines within our cells, it is often easier to improvise their use than evolve new cell mechanisms from scratch (which could do a better job). So often times, within evolution, we aren't using the ideal framework, we are using and improvising an existing framework which is constantly being jerry-rigged to fit new circumstances.
Anyhow, highly recommend it.
It's been a while since I've brushed up on my chemistry, so at times I struggled a bit, but overall the explanations were very very good, even for a lay person like myself. I particularly liked his descriptions of cell biology, cell mechanics, nanomachines within our cells and how they were shaped by evolution. One thought that stayed with me, once evolution has developed a certain framework, say the nanomachines within our cells, it is often easier to improvise their use than evolve new cell mechanisms from scratch (which could do a better job). So often times, within evolution, we aren't using the ideal framework, we are using and improvising an existing framework which is constantly being jerry-rigged to fit new circumstances.
Anyhow, highly recommend it.
March 14, 2016
This book was packed with information but may be a little too scientific for some. I believe I have a basic understanding of biology but at times the content was a little difficult to grasp. This may be partially due to the fact that I listened to this as an audiobook. I know from my friend David’s review that the print book “is filled with diagrams and photographs that help give life to the text”. If that supplemental information was available to me, it is very likely that this would have achieved another star from me. Please check out David’s review for an outstanding recap of the book. It sums up my thoughts exactly.
In summary, the author made a statement along the lines of: microbes are the stewards of life and we are along for the ride. Humans vs. microbes, David vs. Goliath anew.
In summary, the author made a statement along the lines of: microbes are the stewards of life and we are along for the ride. Humans vs. microbes, David vs. Goliath anew.
May 6, 2017
An amazing look into the structure and specific makeup of microbes and how they make pickles and make up the air we breathe. It gets a bit overly technical at times, but I learned way too much in the process.
Audiobook Worthy: The narrator is amazing, but you might get lost in the overly technical parts, so a YES for the science-literate reader.
Audiobook Worthy: The narrator is amazing, but you might get lost in the overly technical parts, so a YES for the science-literate reader.
June 20, 2016
This book was overwhelming to me in some parts - some background in microbiology is needed - but still a good read on how these lowly and unassuming microbes shaped the planet's atmosphere and oceans and set the stage for the emergence of more complicated lifeforms.
October 25, 2015
Very informative and engaging book. Especially on the evolution of microbes and their planetary impact. Not just the oxygen from cyanobacteria but also how the building blocks for fixing carbon (photosynthesis), fixing nitrogen, and harnessing chemical energy (used in mitochondria) all came from microbes and have been utilized in animals and plants. Oh, and it is not a dry read. Good use of personal anecdotes and some humor.
Microbes own this planet; we are just renting.
It would be helpful for the reader to have some very basic knowledge of chemistry. The author does a really good job of explaining things, but he does reference that Life’s Engines really come down to exchanging electrons, so a smattering of the language of chemistry is used throughout the book. But as I said he does a good job of introducing and explaining the terms he uses.
Microbes own this planet; we are just renting.
It would be helpful for the reader to have some very basic knowledge of chemistry. The author does a really good job of explaining things, but he does reference that Life’s Engines really come down to exchanging electrons, so a smattering of the language of chemistry is used throughout the book. But as I said he does a good job of introducing and explaining the terms he uses.
September 8, 2019
Senza dubbio una lettura molto divulgativa, abbastanza semplice, inferiore alle mie aspettative nonostante il linguaggio scorrevole e preciso. Infatti mi aspettavo qualcosa di più, e i primi capitoli sono decisamente i migliori. Mi aspettavo che il discorso fosse ampliato alla microbiologia, ai pregi e alle difficoltà attuali, specialmente mi aspettavo qualcosa in più sugli archea e sulla biologia molecolare di oggi.
La mia delusione però non deve essere presa come qualcosa di negativo, molto probabilmente mi aspettavo qualcosa di meno divulgativo e più specialistico.
La mia delusione però non deve essere presa come qualcosa di negativo, molto probabilmente mi aspettavo qualcosa di meno divulgativo e più specialistico.
August 5, 2017
"Life's Engines" is a very wide-ranging little book. While under 200 pages with relatively large font, it covers
* the discovery and initial study of microbes, situated in a broader biological and geological history of science
* the key mechanisms of how many important biological mechanisms work, best covering a rotor mechanism for ATP generation powered by an electrical gradient across membranes. It also says a little about the electron/hole trading process photosynthesis, but not in great detail.
* the deep history of the world, focusing in particular on the Great Oxidation Event; there is some talk of microscopic fossil evidence
* the protections of a core set of genes, as well as bacterial horizontal gene transfer
* the symbiosis which has led to mitochondria and choroplasts, and the mechanisms of larger eukaryotic cells
* the combining of cells into macroscopic creatures
* the drastic intervention of humans into global nutrient and energy cycles, and its potential consequences
* the further interventions of synthetic biology
* the potential of life on other planets and means by which to survey for microbial life
This really packs a lot in a small package. Readers who have enjoyed Oliver Morton's "Eating the Sun", Andrew Knoll's "Life on a Young Planet", and Carl Zimmer's "Microcosm" will enjoy seeing the synthesis between those subjects, while this book will provide a fine introduction to those who wish to read in this area.
While reading this book, a strange thought crossed my mind: what an achievement it would be for this cluster of books about the deep history of the Earth to have been fictional, a human invention. It would be an astonishing intellectual achievement. The truth about our world is as deep and wonder-producing as anything I've ever seen imagined, right up there with the beautiful and sublime quality of most speculative and cosmopolitan imaginings. It's a wonderful time to be alive, aware of the majesty of it all, living in the profound riches of an energy surplus laid down though many million years.
* the discovery and initial study of microbes, situated in a broader biological and geological history of science
* the key mechanisms of how many important biological mechanisms work, best covering a rotor mechanism for ATP generation powered by an electrical gradient across membranes. It also says a little about the electron/hole trading process photosynthesis, but not in great detail.
* the deep history of the world, focusing in particular on the Great Oxidation Event; there is some talk of microscopic fossil evidence
* the protections of a core set of genes, as well as bacterial horizontal gene transfer
* the symbiosis which has led to mitochondria and choroplasts, and the mechanisms of larger eukaryotic cells
* the combining of cells into macroscopic creatures
* the drastic intervention of humans into global nutrient and energy cycles, and its potential consequences
* the further interventions of synthetic biology
* the potential of life on other planets and means by which to survey for microbial life
This really packs a lot in a small package. Readers who have enjoyed Oliver Morton's "Eating the Sun", Andrew Knoll's "Life on a Young Planet", and Carl Zimmer's "Microcosm" will enjoy seeing the synthesis between those subjects, while this book will provide a fine introduction to those who wish to read in this area.
While reading this book, a strange thought crossed my mind: what an achievement it would be for this cluster of books about the deep history of the Earth to have been fictional, a human invention. It would be an astonishing intellectual achievement. The truth about our world is as deep and wonder-producing as anything I've ever seen imagined, right up there with the beautiful and sublime quality of most speculative and cosmopolitan imaginings. It's a wonderful time to be alive, aware of the majesty of it all, living in the profound riches of an energy surplus laid down though many million years.
July 22, 2018
This book caused ambivalent feelings for me. There were times when I liked it and I learned new things about microbes and our relationship with them but then there were times I found the book tedious, boring, and hard to read.
For example, what made the book hard to read, was its use of names. On page 165 in one paragraph, seven different names were mentioned along with colleges, dates, and ages. They surely had their place there, but I think an editor should have requested a change to make it lighter. Then there were the occasions where the use of jargon overshadowed clarity. I get jargon makes it easier for academics to communicate with each other, but it also has a tendency to make the point murkier and too difficult to understand. Another issue I had was with explaining longly overly simplistic points I think anyone who picks up a book about microbes will know. And that was about Galileo Galilei. Someone who doesn’t know about him and his accomplishments can go read about him instead of the book wasting space and readers time explaining the basics.
Now as all my complaints have been got out of the way, I can concentrate on telling you what I liked about the book. Shortly it inspired and informed me. Longly:
First things first, I learned that most probably no one in the world has similar gut bacteria as I do (rarer than DNA); I have concluded they should study my bacteria profile and make into a nice info-graphic and call it high art!
You could read the book as microbes journal story. Starting from their birth and arriving at the current state where our actions are having their impact on their evolution. We, humans, are only a minor evolutionary hitch in their lifespan. I liked that somewhat bleak out take on our importance in the grand scheme of things, but that might be self-evident to anyone who knows me.
Another thing that this book caused me was a longing to become a biologist to find out all the unknown aspects of microbes. And glimpse them through a microscope. I know there are real beauties out there and I’m sure some of them are willing to kill me. As I am too old to go back to school, the only thing I can do is dream up a world of microbes interacting with their tamers and write a book about it.
So, should you read this book or not? I would say if you can take your time with it, then yes. The book is under two hundred pages and it took me longer to read than I expected. It was rewarding and made me understand our world better and direct my thoughts beyond us humans and our planet.
For example, what made the book hard to read, was its use of names. On page 165 in one paragraph, seven different names were mentioned along with colleges, dates, and ages. They surely had their place there, but I think an editor should have requested a change to make it lighter. Then there were the occasions where the use of jargon overshadowed clarity. I get jargon makes it easier for academics to communicate with each other, but it also has a tendency to make the point murkier and too difficult to understand. Another issue I had was with explaining longly overly simplistic points I think anyone who picks up a book about microbes will know. And that was about Galileo Galilei. Someone who doesn’t know about him and his accomplishments can go read about him instead of the book wasting space and readers time explaining the basics.
Now as all my complaints have been got out of the way, I can concentrate on telling you what I liked about the book. Shortly it inspired and informed me. Longly:
First things first, I learned that most probably no one in the world has similar gut bacteria as I do (rarer than DNA); I have concluded they should study my bacteria profile and make into a nice info-graphic and call it high art!
You could read the book as microbes journal story. Starting from their birth and arriving at the current state where our actions are having their impact on their evolution. We, humans, are only a minor evolutionary hitch in their lifespan. I liked that somewhat bleak out take on our importance in the grand scheme of things, but that might be self-evident to anyone who knows me.
Another thing that this book caused me was a longing to become a biologist to find out all the unknown aspects of microbes. And glimpse them through a microscope. I know there are real beauties out there and I’m sure some of them are willing to kill me. As I am too old to go back to school, the only thing I can do is dream up a world of microbes interacting with their tamers and write a book about it.
So, should you read this book or not? I would say if you can take your time with it, then yes. The book is under two hundred pages and it took me longer to read than I expected. It was rewarding and made me understand our world better and direct my thoughts beyond us humans and our planet.
December 28, 2021
Microbes! This is another book that is part of the Science Essentials series published by Princeton. The student in me enjoys the dense and intense science outside of the jargon that plagues peer-reviewed articles.
March 28, 2024
Honestly a banger, I was expecting it to be dry as hell but it gave probably one of the most down to earth descriptions of the discoveries that lead to the realization that bacteria were earths first life forms and they are truly ancient. I read it all in one night.
March 25, 2021
Overall: not really about the microbes, more of a weird intro bio primer.
Chapter 1
I liked how we got a sense of the author's background in biology, even if it did feel like a long essay you write on why you're interested in biology at times. I agree with him that a lot of bio education is based on animals and plants, though I'm not so sure that's a bad thing given they're much easier to visualize and describe when it comes to evolution. I never felt like we covered the history of life in my bio classes before F2, so the 'bias' against microbes he mentions never really came up. Even though we read portions of On the Origin of Species in Foundations II, I never realized Darwin did so much from geology, even calculating the age of the Earth. Getting a slightly deeper biography of Darwin was nice, and I might look for something else on the topic. This section was basically an introduction, so I don't really have much else to say.
Chapter 2
I was surprised by the chapter being on the history of microscopy, though I now see how tied the creation of this method allowed for the discovery and rediscovery of microbes. I was amazed at how clear Hooke’s images was, since in my head you still need rough wood carvings for printed pictures in the 1660s. I am always amazed by the instrumentalists who create the tools that allow science to happen because new discoveries would not be possible without Leeuwenhoek and later Plossel’simproved microscopes. In addition, so many new ideas like Leeuwenhoek’s and Mendel’s seem to languish in obscure publications for years before being rediscovered. Has some amazing insight been written already, lost in the myriad of unread academic journals online? My gripe with the book thus far is its relative inaccessibility to the non-scientific public. Although we know the composition and function of ribosomes, I think the author’s explanation of this, along with his other vocabulary in the chapter, made this book a little more esoteric than it needs to be.
Chapter 3
The chapter was like a prelude to introduce dating techniques before going onto the actual meat of the book. I found myself wondering if the author talked about the Black Sea as an analog for early life because that's where he did his work or if he did his work there because it is good comparison against older environments. I also find it fascinating that for 85% of life's existence it has been unicellular. I guess the coordination between cells is the hardest thing to achieve naturally.
Chapter 4
For me, this chapter was written in an extremely confusing way. First off, I think the attempt to use plain language to describe scientific processes is very important, but the author also didn’t define many things like proton or explain how RNA codes for proteins. I know he wasn’t going for a textbook, but I don’t think using analogies like RNA codes for proteins really helps explain the process, particularly when neither DNA nor RNA’s structure is explained. The photosynthesis process was a little esoteric despite having learned that process at least three times in my life. Terms jostled between analogies and the weird scientific name so it became a weirdly mixed soup. It took me a while to figure out what things were so I think having an less thorough science experience wouldn’t have made it easier. It was interesting to hear him talk about his own research though and he clearly seemed passionate about the subject but the tone of the chapter did not work for its goal.
Chapter 5
As someone who loves chem, I liked the history of isolating oxygen and the chemical methods for it although I don’t think it fit too well with the rest of the chapter. I think it’s so interesting that photosynthesis occurs in multiple distinct groups having only evolved once. I had a teacher who called cells copycats and that seems pretty true.
It felt a little odd reading the sections on the Great Oxidation because it basically went against what we had learned last year in Foundations II. The information we received was that it took so long because all the iron needed to be oxidised not because of the fine interactions between the nitrogen and oxygen cycles. I don’t really remember hearing about early Earth nitrogen, so I wouldn’t have even thought of it being a limiting factor of life then although that makes a lot of sense given its role in DNA and proteins. I also thought it was pretty interesting to read that the Sun has gotten brighter over the millennia, again something that wouldn’t have even entered my ideas. Overall, this chapter was an improvement on the last one for me.
Chapter 6
The chapter provided a fairly decent summary on genetics, balancing some good analogies like that of software with more molecular explanations. Unfortunately, because I feel like I’ve learned all this information so many times, I wasn’t particularly interested in what I was reading. I don’t think that’s a truly valid criticism to make because it’s not the book’s fault that I just took Genetics and learned this in way more detail that I ever wanted. I can see though for some people this chapter would be very dry if they weren’t too interested in biology but then they wouldn’t be likely to pick up this book, would they? This chapter did make me consider how similar cells are on a basic level. There’s so many fine details that differ but overall the framework is the same.
Chapter 7
The chapter concentrated on cell-cell interaction and endosymbiosis, which was one of my favourite topics to learn about in school. I found this chapter to be relatively good about describing the mechanism for the endosymbiosis in plain but detailed terms. I hadn’t thought about it but it makes sense that the mitochondrion developed first because it’s more present in more lineages than the chloroplast. It was kinda funny that the author knew most of the modern people involved in developing these theories, felt like he was a B-list celeb writing about their 4 A-list friends.
Chapter 8
This chapter, though unfocused, didn’t go that badly in terms of information presented. It was interesting to read all this phylogenetic trivia, like that multicellularity might have happened bc microbes could then better swim. Sponges increase their foraging ground by bringing the ground to themselves. I’m always surprised by how symbiotic most life is. Even a simple sponge, basically a bunch of the same cells glued together, is an environment for microorganisms to live and interact with. In addition, kind of weird to think muscle genes come from a repurposing of a single cell organism’s code.
My one complaint about this chapter: lots on big living things, not as much on microbes.
Chapter 9
And we’re back to our regularly scheduled tangents. The early part of the chapter focussed on humans conquering microbes early on to ferment our food and later on removing disease by controlling water supply and creating medicine. The later part of the chapter though on nutrient cycles and global warming and everything seemed very removed from anything microbial, at least in the way Falkowski discussed it. The nitrogen cycle is only possible because of nitrogen fixing microbes, why not add them in? It felt like a missed opportunity in a section already severely lacking information on the book’s supposed main characters.
Chapter 10
Thank you for that lovely description on the development of molecular genetics and sequencing methods. Almost all of this was covered in more detail in Genetics, and I still wasn’t particularly interested the second time around. It feels like Falkowski kind of lost steam nearing the end of the book and dropped any pretense of making it about microbes and just started throwing in history of fields he was involved in. Like how last chapter he said he accidentally discovered the death phase first, when observing without explaining or describing has never been the criterion for discovery. This one only peripherally talked about microbial life and how we shouldn’t mess with it.
Chapter 11
Again not really much on the microbes here. A lot on what traces are used to detect life and the history of that search. At this point I wasn’t really surprised that the central premise of this book was abandoned so readily. On the plus side, hearing about the McKay fossils was interesting, considering they have a small chance of signifying life on Mars. Talking about magnetotactic life would have been a way to include more about Earth’s microbes, but I guess this wasn’t the chapter for tangents.
Random thoughts. The Office of Planetary Protection sounds like a cool place to work honestly. The guy who created the Astrobiology program got a bunch of German soldiers to surrender to avoid Soviets, so he would have found negotiating budget allocations easy. I don’t know why hearing that made me laugh.
Chapter 1
I liked how we got a sense of the author's background in biology, even if it did feel like a long essay you write on why you're interested in biology at times. I agree with him that a lot of bio education is based on animals and plants, though I'm not so sure that's a bad thing given they're much easier to visualize and describe when it comes to evolution. I never felt like we covered the history of life in my bio classes before F2, so the 'bias' against microbes he mentions never really came up. Even though we read portions of On the Origin of Species in Foundations II, I never realized Darwin did so much from geology, even calculating the age of the Earth. Getting a slightly deeper biography of Darwin was nice, and I might look for something else on the topic. This section was basically an introduction, so I don't really have much else to say.
Chapter 2
I was surprised by the chapter being on the history of microscopy, though I now see how tied the creation of this method allowed for the discovery and rediscovery of microbes. I was amazed at how clear Hooke’s images was, since in my head you still need rough wood carvings for printed pictures in the 1660s. I am always amazed by the instrumentalists who create the tools that allow science to happen because new discoveries would not be possible without Leeuwenhoek and later Plossel’simproved microscopes. In addition, so many new ideas like Leeuwenhoek’s and Mendel’s seem to languish in obscure publications for years before being rediscovered. Has some amazing insight been written already, lost in the myriad of unread academic journals online? My gripe with the book thus far is its relative inaccessibility to the non-scientific public. Although we know the composition and function of ribosomes, I think the author’s explanation of this, along with his other vocabulary in the chapter, made this book a little more esoteric than it needs to be.
Chapter 3
The chapter was like a prelude to introduce dating techniques before going onto the actual meat of the book. I found myself wondering if the author talked about the Black Sea as an analog for early life because that's where he did his work or if he did his work there because it is good comparison against older environments. I also find it fascinating that for 85% of life's existence it has been unicellular. I guess the coordination between cells is the hardest thing to achieve naturally.
Chapter 4
For me, this chapter was written in an extremely confusing way. First off, I think the attempt to use plain language to describe scientific processes is very important, but the author also didn’t define many things like proton or explain how RNA codes for proteins. I know he wasn’t going for a textbook, but I don’t think using analogies like RNA codes for proteins really helps explain the process, particularly when neither DNA nor RNA’s structure is explained. The photosynthesis process was a little esoteric despite having learned that process at least three times in my life. Terms jostled between analogies and the weird scientific name so it became a weirdly mixed soup. It took me a while to figure out what things were so I think having an less thorough science experience wouldn’t have made it easier. It was interesting to hear him talk about his own research though and he clearly seemed passionate about the subject but the tone of the chapter did not work for its goal.
Chapter 5
As someone who loves chem, I liked the history of isolating oxygen and the chemical methods for it although I don’t think it fit too well with the rest of the chapter. I think it’s so interesting that photosynthesis occurs in multiple distinct groups having only evolved once. I had a teacher who called cells copycats and that seems pretty true.
It felt a little odd reading the sections on the Great Oxidation because it basically went against what we had learned last year in Foundations II. The information we received was that it took so long because all the iron needed to be oxidised not because of the fine interactions between the nitrogen and oxygen cycles. I don’t really remember hearing about early Earth nitrogen, so I wouldn’t have even thought of it being a limiting factor of life then although that makes a lot of sense given its role in DNA and proteins. I also thought it was pretty interesting to read that the Sun has gotten brighter over the millennia, again something that wouldn’t have even entered my ideas. Overall, this chapter was an improvement on the last one for me.
Chapter 6
The chapter provided a fairly decent summary on genetics, balancing some good analogies like that of software with more molecular explanations. Unfortunately, because I feel like I’ve learned all this information so many times, I wasn’t particularly interested in what I was reading. I don’t think that’s a truly valid criticism to make because it’s not the book’s fault that I just took Genetics and learned this in way more detail that I ever wanted. I can see though for some people this chapter would be very dry if they weren’t too interested in biology but then they wouldn’t be likely to pick up this book, would they? This chapter did make me consider how similar cells are on a basic level. There’s so many fine details that differ but overall the framework is the same.
Chapter 7
The chapter concentrated on cell-cell interaction and endosymbiosis, which was one of my favourite topics to learn about in school. I found this chapter to be relatively good about describing the mechanism for the endosymbiosis in plain but detailed terms. I hadn’t thought about it but it makes sense that the mitochondrion developed first because it’s more present in more lineages than the chloroplast. It was kinda funny that the author knew most of the modern people involved in developing these theories, felt like he was a B-list celeb writing about their 4 A-list friends.
Chapter 8
This chapter, though unfocused, didn’t go that badly in terms of information presented. It was interesting to read all this phylogenetic trivia, like that multicellularity might have happened bc microbes could then better swim. Sponges increase their foraging ground by bringing the ground to themselves. I’m always surprised by how symbiotic most life is. Even a simple sponge, basically a bunch of the same cells glued together, is an environment for microorganisms to live and interact with. In addition, kind of weird to think muscle genes come from a repurposing of a single cell organism’s code.
My one complaint about this chapter: lots on big living things, not as much on microbes.
Chapter 9
And we’re back to our regularly scheduled tangents. The early part of the chapter focussed on humans conquering microbes early on to ferment our food and later on removing disease by controlling water supply and creating medicine. The later part of the chapter though on nutrient cycles and global warming and everything seemed very removed from anything microbial, at least in the way Falkowski discussed it. The nitrogen cycle is only possible because of nitrogen fixing microbes, why not add them in? It felt like a missed opportunity in a section already severely lacking information on the book’s supposed main characters.
Chapter 10
Thank you for that lovely description on the development of molecular genetics and sequencing methods. Almost all of this was covered in more detail in Genetics, and I still wasn’t particularly interested the second time around. It feels like Falkowski kind of lost steam nearing the end of the book and dropped any pretense of making it about microbes and just started throwing in history of fields he was involved in. Like how last chapter he said he accidentally discovered the death phase first, when observing without explaining or describing has never been the criterion for discovery. This one only peripherally talked about microbial life and how we shouldn’t mess with it.
Chapter 11
Again not really much on the microbes here. A lot on what traces are used to detect life and the history of that search. At this point I wasn’t really surprised that the central premise of this book was abandoned so readily. On the plus side, hearing about the McKay fossils was interesting, considering they have a small chance of signifying life on Mars. Talking about magnetotactic life would have been a way to include more about Earth’s microbes, but I guess this wasn’t the chapter for tangents.
Random thoughts. The Office of Planetary Protection sounds like a cool place to work honestly. The guy who created the Astrobiology program got a bunch of German soldiers to surrender to avoid Soviets, so he would have found negotiating budget allocations easy. I don’t know why hearing that made me laugh.
January 18, 2017
Invisibili ma fondamentali per l'origine e lo sviluppo della vita come la conosciamo.
Da sempre sono affascinato dalle riflessioni sulle origini dell'universo, dal Big Bang alla nascita del Sistema Solare, e con questo libro ho voluto proseguire in questa affascinante storia affrontando alcuni temi riguardanti l'origine della vita sul nostro pianeta e la sua evoluzione (della vita e del pianeta stesso) ad opera di questi invisibili e instancabili lavoratori, i microbi. La storia non è per nulla certa e priva di dubbi, ipotesi da verificare, ed è affascinante vedere come studiando fossili e tracce di un remoto passato si riescano a capire o almeno intuire processi avvenuti nel corso degli ultimi 4 miliardi di anni. In questo testo, piuttosto scorrevole e divulgativo, si capisce il ruolo fondamentale che hanno avuto i microbi nel plasmare il mondo, che a sua volta con i suoi enormi cambiamenti ha cambiato totalmente le carte in tavola, costringendo i microbi e le forme viventi in generale ad evolversi, adattarsi, migliorarsi o talvolta a scomparire. Ho trovato affascinante anche la spiegazione (a grandi linee) di come funzionano le nanomacchine nelle cellule, che sono continuamente al lavoro per immagazzinare energia, utilizzarla per spostare elettroni o protoni e assemblare molecole utili, un lavoro senza sosta compiuto da miliardi di "macchine" presenti nel nostro corpo.
Nella parte finale del libro si affronta anche una questione che ci tocca molto da vicino, ossia la manipolazione dei microbi per specializzarli in alcune funzioni o migliorare alcune loro capacità (ad esempio favorire una migliore fissazione dell'azoto in alcune coltivazioni). Si capisce anche che all'uomo piace giocare con la natura, manipolarla, sfruttarla, ma con rischi immensi: purtroppo non comprendiamo appieno alcuni meccanismi fondamentali ma nonostante ciò "ci giochiamo" per produrre cose nuove, che potrebbero sfuggire al nostro controllo e rompere equilibri di vita su larga scala, con conseguenze spiacevoli.
Un libro che consiglio di leggere agli appassionati di scienza in generale, magari qualche passaggio può sfuggire o risultare difficile ma la lettura è comunque affascinante e non farà che aumentare la vostra curiosità.
Della stessa casa editrice ho letto anche La fisica della vita: La nuova scienza della biologia quantistica, che vi consiglio caldamente, come pure Il complesso di Copernico. Il nostro posto nell'universo, di un altra casa editrice, se siete appassionati di astrofisica e vi interessa riflettere sulla natura dell'universo e sul nostro ruolo, se siamo speciali e viviamo in un posto speciale o se "semplicemente" siamo in uno dei mondi (l'unico?) in cui potremmo essere perché presenta le condizioni necessarie per la nostra vita.
Da sempre sono affascinato dalle riflessioni sulle origini dell'universo, dal Big Bang alla nascita del Sistema Solare, e con questo libro ho voluto proseguire in questa affascinante storia affrontando alcuni temi riguardanti l'origine della vita sul nostro pianeta e la sua evoluzione (della vita e del pianeta stesso) ad opera di questi invisibili e instancabili lavoratori, i microbi. La storia non è per nulla certa e priva di dubbi, ipotesi da verificare, ed è affascinante vedere come studiando fossili e tracce di un remoto passato si riescano a capire o almeno intuire processi avvenuti nel corso degli ultimi 4 miliardi di anni. In questo testo, piuttosto scorrevole e divulgativo, si capisce il ruolo fondamentale che hanno avuto i microbi nel plasmare il mondo, che a sua volta con i suoi enormi cambiamenti ha cambiato totalmente le carte in tavola, costringendo i microbi e le forme viventi in generale ad evolversi, adattarsi, migliorarsi o talvolta a scomparire. Ho trovato affascinante anche la spiegazione (a grandi linee) di come funzionano le nanomacchine nelle cellule, che sono continuamente al lavoro per immagazzinare energia, utilizzarla per spostare elettroni o protoni e assemblare molecole utili, un lavoro senza sosta compiuto da miliardi di "macchine" presenti nel nostro corpo.
Nella parte finale del libro si affronta anche una questione che ci tocca molto da vicino, ossia la manipolazione dei microbi per specializzarli in alcune funzioni o migliorare alcune loro capacità (ad esempio favorire una migliore fissazione dell'azoto in alcune coltivazioni). Si capisce anche che all'uomo piace giocare con la natura, manipolarla, sfruttarla, ma con rischi immensi: purtroppo non comprendiamo appieno alcuni meccanismi fondamentali ma nonostante ciò "ci giochiamo" per produrre cose nuove, che potrebbero sfuggire al nostro controllo e rompere equilibri di vita su larga scala, con conseguenze spiacevoli.
Un libro che consiglio di leggere agli appassionati di scienza in generale, magari qualche passaggio può sfuggire o risultare difficile ma la lettura è comunque affascinante e non farà che aumentare la vostra curiosità.
Della stessa casa editrice ho letto anche La fisica della vita: La nuova scienza della biologia quantistica, che vi consiglio caldamente, come pure Il complesso di Copernico. Il nostro posto nell'universo, di un altra casa editrice, se siete appassionati di astrofisica e vi interessa riflettere sulla natura dell'universo e sul nostro ruolo, se siamo speciali e viviamo in un posto speciale o se "semplicemente" siamo in uno dei mondi (l'unico?) in cui potremmo essere perché presenta le condizioni necessarie per la nostra vita.
July 8, 2017
This book hasn't gotten a lot of love it seems. I think you should give it a whirl and here's why.
Okay so, Nick Lane is this guy's buddy and therefore, yes, a few of the chapters will go into biochemistry and be somewhat difficult to get through. (I definitely enjoy Nick Lane and always learn something from him, but his books stretch layman a bit...). There's some drawn out sections on cellular respiration and photosynthesis. Still! Biogeochemical cycles and oxidation are important microbial events!
My favorite parts were actually the last few chapters. I loved his exploration from unicellular to multicellular organism. I've never read a book that treaded in those waters. I also liked the history of people and microbes and ideas about extraterrestrial life (though it is a science book cliché for shizzle). Also, it includes the clearest explanation for Leeuwenhoek's microscope I've ever read!
Still, give Paul some credit because I think his book is mostly pretty readable and his enthusiasm is punctuated very well throughout. I also liked his descent into nerdiness and frustration with how he learned biology anecdotes. Plus he adds pictures throughout and that's always a plus for me.
So, if you have a passing interest in microbes and life on earth give this a read!
Okay so, Nick Lane is this guy's buddy and therefore, yes, a few of the chapters will go into biochemistry and be somewhat difficult to get through. (I definitely enjoy Nick Lane and always learn something from him, but his books stretch layman a bit...). There's some drawn out sections on cellular respiration and photosynthesis. Still! Biogeochemical cycles and oxidation are important microbial events!
My favorite parts were actually the last few chapters. I loved his exploration from unicellular to multicellular organism. I've never read a book that treaded in those waters. I also liked the history of people and microbes and ideas about extraterrestrial life (though it is a science book cliché for shizzle). Also, it includes the clearest explanation for Leeuwenhoek's microscope I've ever read!
Still, give Paul some credit because I think his book is mostly pretty readable and his enthusiasm is punctuated very well throughout. I also liked his descent into nerdiness and frustration with how he learned biology anecdotes. Plus he adds pictures throughout and that's always a plus for me.
So, if you have a passing interest in microbes and life on earth give this a read!
July 20, 2020
Life’s Engines, How Microbes Made Earth Habitable
Paul J. Falkowski, 2017
I have reviewed a number of books are concerned with the evolution of life on earth and the connections that we have with all life forms. This book is focused on the very smallest but most ubiquitous of creatures, the microbes. Discoveries in biology and genetics in the past 60 years have been astounding and have changed the very concept of our own identity, evolution, and our critical symbiotic relation with the microbes within us. We are but an assemblage of trillions of cells that are just basic derivatives of the very microbes that have inhabited the earth for over 4 billion years.
Most people are astounded by the fact that within our body is a cooperative ecosystem of over 100 trillion microbes. The ecosystem within our gut processes the food we eat into vitamins and compounds essential for our health. It becomes obvious to us and those around us when this ecosystem gets out of balance. I am reminded of a happening in my academic career. At the fraternity, I would watch TV in a darkened room. Occasionally a guy on the sofa would drop his trousers, raise his butt in the air and light a torch to his bung hole. A large blue flame would issue out. This was obviously a gross and stupid thing to do but it demonstrated what the anaerobic bacterial system was up to: generating methane and hydrogen gas due to an out of balance situation. You will understand this situation when you read this book.
How did these bacteria come to dominate both the global ecosystems but also the internal ecosystems of all animals? How did they change the atmosphere and geology of the earth? How did these bacteria evolve into more complex microbes such as eukaryotic cells? How did these eukaryotic cells evolve into collaborative associations of cells and form the bodies of complex animals and plants? Not long ago the answers to these questions would have been speculative. Now due to recent advances in gene sequencing our knowledge has taken quantum leaps forward. The basic engine of all complex cells is a subunit within the cell called the mitochondria. We now know through genetics that this cell is closely related to purple non-sulfur photosynthetic bacterium. It was absorbed by an Archean anaerobic host cell, similar to bacteria in our gut, in a process called endosymbiosis. It was ingested and repurposed to serve as an engine and battery to process food into energy for the host cell. It increased the energy available to the new merged cell tenfold and enabled the evolution of all multicellular complex organisms. Without this rather improbable occurrence over a billion of years ago we would not be possible. A similar concurrent, endosymbiotic event occurred when a Archean cell absorbed a cyanobacteria which is a CO2 absorbing, oxygen emitting microbe. This bacterium would evolve into a chloroplast which would enable the evolution of plant life on earth. Without this event animal life on earth would not be possible.
Over millennia microbes have fueled the carbon nitrogen cycles on earth. Cyanobacteria in the oceans and plants on earth have recycled CO2, emitted O2 and sequestered carbon in their cells. Through deep geological processes organic carbon has been recycled through the earth’s mantle and ejected through volcanism. Oceanic microbes, bacteria associated with the roots of legumes have fixed nitrogen into compounds essential for plant growth for millennia. That was before the industrial revolution. Fixed nitrogen it turns out makes great explosives. Because of two world wars nations found they could not extract enough naturally occurring nitrogen compounds to make enough explosives. In Germany during WWII the Haber Bosch process was perfected which enabled a huge increase in available ammunitions and after the war, fertilizers. Without the almost tripled increased availability of fertilizers the green revolution would not have been possible and probably the worlds current population would not be possible. However increased fertilizer runoff is beyond the capacity of the microbial systems to absorb and this is leading to an imbalance leading to huge poisoned dead oceanic zones.
Another problem: Since the industrial revolution we have been short-circuiting the geologic processes of carbon recycling, digging up sequestered carbon and ejecting huge quantities of CO2 into the atmosphere. This has led to a rapid buildup of heat trapping gases in the atmosphere but also a change in ocean acidity. The complex microbial balance in the ocean systems is being disrupted with the potential for a disastrous collapse.
As Falkowski says “The microbes are the stewards on this planet, and we barely understand how they evolved a system of moving electrons and elements across its surface. Ultimately, that electron flow made earth habitable for us. We have minimal knowledge of how that electronic circuit works, let alone how to control it, yet in our hubris and insatiable need for more resources, we tinker with and inadvertently disrupt the circuit”. “We are all macroscopic bodies, and our existence is made possible only by the evolution of microscopic nanomachines that evolved a long time ago, in microbes. They are our true ancestors and the true stewards of life on earth”.
Our knowledge of our origins and how our planet works has exploded over the past decades since I graduated from college. Yet paradoxically the ignorance and distrust of scientific knowledge has also exploded. Science is not political. Science deals with reality. If you don’t acknowledge science, you don’t acknowledge reality. If you do not acknowledge reality, then you court potential disaster. We are now witnessing just such a disaster. Can we learn before we encounter the next even more existential disaster? This is a book that is crammed with extremely important, immensely rewarding information. I would say a knowledge of beginning chemistry would be helpful. JACK
Paul J. Falkowski, 2017
I have reviewed a number of books are concerned with the evolution of life on earth and the connections that we have with all life forms. This book is focused on the very smallest but most ubiquitous of creatures, the microbes. Discoveries in biology and genetics in the past 60 years have been astounding and have changed the very concept of our own identity, evolution, and our critical symbiotic relation with the microbes within us. We are but an assemblage of trillions of cells that are just basic derivatives of the very microbes that have inhabited the earth for over 4 billion years.
Most people are astounded by the fact that within our body is a cooperative ecosystem of over 100 trillion microbes. The ecosystem within our gut processes the food we eat into vitamins and compounds essential for our health. It becomes obvious to us and those around us when this ecosystem gets out of balance. I am reminded of a happening in my academic career. At the fraternity, I would watch TV in a darkened room. Occasionally a guy on the sofa would drop his trousers, raise his butt in the air and light a torch to his bung hole. A large blue flame would issue out. This was obviously a gross and stupid thing to do but it demonstrated what the anaerobic bacterial system was up to: generating methane and hydrogen gas due to an out of balance situation. You will understand this situation when you read this book.
How did these bacteria come to dominate both the global ecosystems but also the internal ecosystems of all animals? How did they change the atmosphere and geology of the earth? How did these bacteria evolve into more complex microbes such as eukaryotic cells? How did these eukaryotic cells evolve into collaborative associations of cells and form the bodies of complex animals and plants? Not long ago the answers to these questions would have been speculative. Now due to recent advances in gene sequencing our knowledge has taken quantum leaps forward. The basic engine of all complex cells is a subunit within the cell called the mitochondria. We now know through genetics that this cell is closely related to purple non-sulfur photosynthetic bacterium. It was absorbed by an Archean anaerobic host cell, similar to bacteria in our gut, in a process called endosymbiosis. It was ingested and repurposed to serve as an engine and battery to process food into energy for the host cell. It increased the energy available to the new merged cell tenfold and enabled the evolution of all multicellular complex organisms. Without this rather improbable occurrence over a billion of years ago we would not be possible. A similar concurrent, endosymbiotic event occurred when a Archean cell absorbed a cyanobacteria which is a CO2 absorbing, oxygen emitting microbe. This bacterium would evolve into a chloroplast which would enable the evolution of plant life on earth. Without this event animal life on earth would not be possible.
Over millennia microbes have fueled the carbon nitrogen cycles on earth. Cyanobacteria in the oceans and plants on earth have recycled CO2, emitted O2 and sequestered carbon in their cells. Through deep geological processes organic carbon has been recycled through the earth’s mantle and ejected through volcanism. Oceanic microbes, bacteria associated with the roots of legumes have fixed nitrogen into compounds essential for plant growth for millennia. That was before the industrial revolution. Fixed nitrogen it turns out makes great explosives. Because of two world wars nations found they could not extract enough naturally occurring nitrogen compounds to make enough explosives. In Germany during WWII the Haber Bosch process was perfected which enabled a huge increase in available ammunitions and after the war, fertilizers. Without the almost tripled increased availability of fertilizers the green revolution would not have been possible and probably the worlds current population would not be possible. However increased fertilizer runoff is beyond the capacity of the microbial systems to absorb and this is leading to an imbalance leading to huge poisoned dead oceanic zones.
Another problem: Since the industrial revolution we have been short-circuiting the geologic processes of carbon recycling, digging up sequestered carbon and ejecting huge quantities of CO2 into the atmosphere. This has led to a rapid buildup of heat trapping gases in the atmosphere but also a change in ocean acidity. The complex microbial balance in the ocean systems is being disrupted with the potential for a disastrous collapse.
As Falkowski says “The microbes are the stewards on this planet, and we barely understand how they evolved a system of moving electrons and elements across its surface. Ultimately, that electron flow made earth habitable for us. We have minimal knowledge of how that electronic circuit works, let alone how to control it, yet in our hubris and insatiable need for more resources, we tinker with and inadvertently disrupt the circuit”. “We are all macroscopic bodies, and our existence is made possible only by the evolution of microscopic nanomachines that evolved a long time ago, in microbes. They are our true ancestors and the true stewards of life on earth”.
Our knowledge of our origins and how our planet works has exploded over the past decades since I graduated from college. Yet paradoxically the ignorance and distrust of scientific knowledge has also exploded. Science is not political. Science deals with reality. If you don’t acknowledge science, you don’t acknowledge reality. If you do not acknowledge reality, then you court potential disaster. We are now witnessing just such a disaster. Can we learn before we encounter the next even more existential disaster? This is a book that is crammed with extremely important, immensely rewarding information. I would say a knowledge of beginning chemistry would be helpful. JACK
April 2, 2016
This book is more biochemistry than ecology or geochemistry. While the writing is clear and clean, it is too straightforward. Some reviews have discussed this book with another, Nick Lane's "The Vital Question", published about the same time. The two have some common themes (an emphasis on mitochondria and other small things found inside cells), their goals are completely different. In contrast to "Life's Engines", Lane's book discusses novel ideas and hypotheses, connecting seemly disparate topics from hydrothermal vents to cell death.
September 15, 2015
An amazingly understandable and thorough outline of how life works, how important microbes are, and what we're likely to find on other planets.
Currently reading
August 5, 2021Another owned book that I need to get back to. Falkowski suffers from a rather soporific writing style, but his info is top-notch.
June 11, 2018
It is more of a 4 star book, but I have a soft spot in my heart for non-fiction books written by real scientists (those guys are busy and still they did this for us!), so bumping to 5 stars.
This is not a very typical book. It doesn't give a broad history of the subject, it doesn't go into details about any particular area - it just follows author's mind flow. Whatever interests him and whatever he wants to tell you about. It reads like a series of articles in Scientific American - loosely connected, with lots of technical details that sometimes can be omitted, but since you are reading it, you probably wanted those details in the first place.
But what this guy knows and muses about is fascinating. From how cells work to how microbes turned Earth into a snow ball to how fertilizers are more dangerous than burning fossil fuel to search for life on other planets (and searching for those planets in the first place).
It made me think a lot about the place of humans and organizations and structure and whether it is life's destiny to change the planet over and over with catastrophic consequences for the life itself.
Some nitpicking - the book really-really needs a good editor. When you read a hard book and some sentences miss words it doesn't make things any easier. Sometimes it felt like whole paragraphs got lost... And it is a small book, which actually might have benefitted from getting bigger. My chemistry is below average bar. I keep forgetting what's acid, what's alkaline, and what's salt, while harder subjects require me to stop reading and go googling. Considering a willing lay(wo)men and providing a bit more of basics chemistry background here and there would help a lot.
But overall - great book, I would read another one from Falkowski.
This is not a very typical book. It doesn't give a broad history of the subject, it doesn't go into details about any particular area - it just follows author's mind flow. Whatever interests him and whatever he wants to tell you about. It reads like a series of articles in Scientific American - loosely connected, with lots of technical details that sometimes can be omitted, but since you are reading it, you probably wanted those details in the first place.
But what this guy knows and muses about is fascinating. From how cells work to how microbes turned Earth into a snow ball to how fertilizers are more dangerous than burning fossil fuel to search for life on other planets (and searching for those planets in the first place).
It made me think a lot about the place of humans and organizations and structure and whether it is life's destiny to change the planet over and over with catastrophic consequences for the life itself.
Some nitpicking - the book really-really needs a good editor. When you read a hard book and some sentences miss words it doesn't make things any easier. Sometimes it felt like whole paragraphs got lost... And it is a small book, which actually might have benefitted from getting bigger. My chemistry is below average bar. I keep forgetting what's acid, what's alkaline, and what's salt, while harder subjects require me to stop reading and go googling. Considering a willing lay(wo)men and providing a bit more of basics chemistry background here and there would help a lot.
But overall - great book, I would read another one from Falkowski.
July 4, 2020
Having no background in Biology was both the impetus for reading this book, and the condition that prevented me from fully appreciating it.
I say ‘appreciating’ instead of ‘enjoying’, because the experience was enjoyable. Even as a few of the 11 chapters went over my head or out of my range, Falkowski’s writing is at least informative and often engaging.
A major strength of the work is in its sequencing. Even as I occasionally missed some pieces, I was aware that ‘A leads to B’ when appropriate. This book is nicely scaffolded (horizontally and vertically... like gene transfer... see? I did learn something!) with, I think, diverse commands of the discipline in mind.
Lazily, but predictably, I connected most with the concluding chapters - bringing us to present evolutionary day, and looking beyond... discussing our current relationship with microbes, and how they might interact with ‘alien’ landscapes.
Though I read them in opposite order, I would highly recommend Kevin Peter Hand’s “Alien Oceans - the Search for Life in the Depths of Space” as an ideal follow up... not exactly for your inner Biologist (alone), but instead along the same progression of thought.
Recommended.
I say ‘appreciating’ instead of ‘enjoying’, because the experience was enjoyable. Even as a few of the 11 chapters went over my head or out of my range, Falkowski’s writing is at least informative and often engaging.
A major strength of the work is in its sequencing. Even as I occasionally missed some pieces, I was aware that ‘A leads to B’ when appropriate. This book is nicely scaffolded (horizontally and vertically... like gene transfer... see? I did learn something!) with, I think, diverse commands of the discipline in mind.
Lazily, but predictably, I connected most with the concluding chapters - bringing us to present evolutionary day, and looking beyond... discussing our current relationship with microbes, and how they might interact with ‘alien’ landscapes.
Though I read them in opposite order, I would highly recommend Kevin Peter Hand’s “Alien Oceans - the Search for Life in the Depths of Space” as an ideal follow up... not exactly for your inner Biologist (alone), but instead along the same progression of thought.
Recommended.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 27, 2017
Here are my takeaways from this rather entertaining (but not so massive) book:
1. The microscopic machines that microbes invented are either in use by all of us or we depend upon them, all of our lives
2. Horizontal gene transfer (although it sounds rather racy) is non-sexual but still the foundation of so many critical parts of eukaryotic cells, which we ourselves use 24/7 as well
3. Microbes ruled the atmosphere for billions of years on Earth. Now we humans do. What will this imbalance bring?
4. Recombinant DNA & gene splicing are being used today by scientists to make all sorts of organisms. . . but is this work wise?
Great book. Funny w/ its anecdotes. I would recommend it. The only wish I have is that the general statement, "scientists are making new microbes but they don't know what they are doing" could have been fleshed out with examples.
1. The microscopic machines that microbes invented are either in use by all of us or we depend upon them, all of our lives
2. Horizontal gene transfer (although it sounds rather racy) is non-sexual but still the foundation of so many critical parts of eukaryotic cells, which we ourselves use 24/7 as well
3. Microbes ruled the atmosphere for billions of years on Earth. Now we humans do. What will this imbalance bring?
4. Recombinant DNA & gene splicing are being used today by scientists to make all sorts of organisms. . . but is this work wise?
Great book. Funny w/ its anecdotes. I would recommend it. The only wish I have is that the general statement, "scientists are making new microbes but they don't know what they are doing" could have been fleshed out with examples.
January 6, 2023
І назва кнігі, і анатацыя крыху ўводзяць у зман. Здаецца, аўтар зараз падрабязна раскажа пра біягеахімічныя цыклы, у якіх удзельнічаюць бактэрыі, але якраз гэтай інфармацыі тут па мінімуму. Затое маем гісторыю вывучэння мікраарганізмаў, будову іх клетак, часам з сваеасаблівымі аўтарскімі назвамі, і нават спробу растлумачыць эвалюцыю аднаклетачных у шматклетачных (гэта лепш апісана ў "Рождение сложности" Маркова). Апошнія разьдзелы кнігі увогуле абстрактныя.
Гэта не зусім кепская кніга для знаёмства, калі вашы веды пра мікраарганізмы - павярхоўныя. Мікрабіёлагі тут не знойдуць нічого новага.
Гэта не зусім кепская кніга для знаёмства, калі вашы веды пра мікраарганізмы - павярхоўныя. Мікрабіёлагі тут не знойдуць нічого новага.
September 10, 2017
Promising begining but the ending is not elaborated
The beginning of the book is very promising. It gives lot of new information (for me at least) about the inner working of energy production in a cell. The second part of the book is not worked out that well it tries to tell lot of things but the storline is not clear to me. The content would be good for a 600 pages book not for a 200. I dont really see the conclusion of the book. Although for thr novel topic and the imteresting read it deserves 4 stars from me
The beginning of the book is very promising. It gives lot of new information (for me at least) about the inner working of energy production in a cell. The second part of the book is not worked out that well it tries to tell lot of things but the storline is not clear to me. The content would be good for a 600 pages book not for a 200. I dont really see the conclusion of the book. Although for thr novel topic and the imteresting read it deserves 4 stars from me
May 5, 2021
This book lacked cohesion. If the reader is literate in modern biology, they'll be aware that Falkowski present a mishmash of bio 101 topics in at times random order interlaced with underdeveloped biographical details. He tries to get a little of a lot done in less than 200 pages and the result is the 2-star rating you observe.
There's a famous line from Bacon which escapes me about the different ways a reader should consume a book. With this title, a discerning reader would do better to sniff it once and walk away to read better things.
There's a famous line from Bacon which escapes me about the different ways a reader should consume a book. With this title, a discerning reader would do better to sniff it once and walk away to read better things.
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