The Vital Question

Last updated

The Vital Question: Why is Life the Way it is?
Cover of The Vital Question by Nick Lane.jpg
Author Nick Lane
Subject Origin of life
GenrePopularisation of science
PublisherProfile Books
Publication date
2015
ISBN 978-0-393-08881-6 (Hardcover)

The Vital Question is a book by the English biochemist Nick Lane about the way the evolution and origin of life on Earth was constrained by the provision of energy.

Contents

The book was well received by critics; The New York Times , for example, found it "seductive and often convincing" [1] though the reviewer considered much of it speculative beyond the evidence provided. The Guardian wrote that the book presented hard evidence and tightly interlocking theory on a question once thought inaccessible to science, the origin of life. [2] New Scientist found the book's arguments powerful and persuasive with many testable ideas; that it was not easy to read was compensated by the "incredible, epic story" [3] that it told. The Telegraph wrote that the book succeeded brilliantly as science writing, expanding the reader's horizons with a gripping narrative. [4]

Context

Early theories of the origin of life included spontaneous generation from non-living matter and panspermia, the arrival of life on earth from other bodies in space. [5] The question of how life originated became urgent when Charles Darwin's 1859 On the Origin of Species became widely accepted by biologists. The evolution of new species by splitting off from older ones implied that all life forms were derived from a few such forms, perhaps only one, as Darwin had suggested at the end of his book. [6] Darwin suggested that life could have originated in some "warm little pond" containing a suitable mixture of chemical compounds. [7] The question has continued to be debated into the 21st century. [8] [9] [10] [11]

Nick Lane is a biochemist at University College London; he researches "evolutionary biochemistry and bioenergetics, focusing on the origin of life and the evolution of complex cells." He has become known as a science writer, having written four books about evolutionary biochemistry. [12]

Book

Synopsis

Lane argues that alkaline hydrothermal vents known as white smokers provided the energy for the earliest forms of life. Champagne vent white smokers.jpg
Lane argues that alkaline hydrothermal vents known as white smokers provided the energy for the earliest forms of life.

In the book, Lane discusses what he considers to be a major gap in biology: why life operates the way that it does, and how it began. In his view as a biochemist, the core question is about energy, as all cells handle energy in the same way, relying on a steep electrochemical gradient across the very small thickness of a membrane in a cell – to power all the chemical reactions of life. The electrical energy is transformed into forms that the cell can use by a chain of energy-handling structures including ancient proteins such as cytochromes, ion channels, and the enzyme ATP synthase, all built into the membrane. Once evolved, this chain has been conserved by all living things, showing that it is vital to life. [14] He argues that such an electrochemical gradient could not have arisen in ordinary conditions, such as the open ocean or Darwin's "warm little pond". He argues instead (following Günter Wächtershäuser [15] ) that life began in deep-sea hydrothermal vents, as these contain chemicals that effectively store energy that cells could use, as long as the cells provided a membrane to generate the needed gradient by maintaining different concentrations of chemicals on either side. [16]

Once cells similar to bacteria (the first prokaryotes, cells without a nucleus) had emerged, he writes, they stayed like that for two and a half billion years. Then, just once, cells jumped in complexity and size, acquiring a nucleus and other organelles, and complex behavioural features including sex, which he notes have become universal in complex (eukaryotic) life forms including plants, animals, and fungi. [17]

The book is illustrated with 37 figures taken by permission from a wide variety of research sources. They include a timeline, photographs, cladograms, electron flow diagrams and diagrams of the life cycle of cells and their chromosomes. [18]

Publication history

The book was first published by Profile Books in 2015. The British edition was subtitled with the question of the title, "Why is Life the Way it is?", whereas the American edition was subtitled with the explanation "Energy, Evolution, and the Origins of Complex Life". A paperback edition came out in 2016. The book has been translated into at least seven languages: Chinese, German, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Spanish, and Turkish. [19] [20]

Reception

The head of the universal ATP synthase molecule is made to rotate, driving the formation of the energy molecule ATP. Atp synthase.PNG
The head of the universal ATP synthase molecule is made to rotate, driving the formation of the energy molecule ATP.

Tim Requarth, reviewing The Vital Question for The New York Times , finds the book "seductive and often convincing, though speculation far outpaces evidence in many of the book’s passages. But perhaps for a biological theory of everything, that's to be expected, even welcomed." [1]

Peter Forbes, reviewing The Vital Question in The Guardian , noted that the origin of life was once thought to be "safely consigned to wistful armchair musing", but that in the past 20 years new research in genomics, geology, biochemistry and molecular biology have transformed thinking in the field. "Here is the book that presents all this hard evidence and tightly interlocking theory to a wider audience.", writes Forbes. [2]

Michael LePage, reviewing the book in New Scientist , writes that the fact that complex cells only evolved once is "very peculiar when you think about it", but it is just one of many large mysteries that Lane addresses, including aging and death, sex, and speciation. LePage finds Lane's arguments "powerful and persuasive", with many testable ideas. The book is not, he writes, the easiest to read, but "it does tell an incredible, epic story", from the dawn of life to the present day. [3]

Lane explains how proton gradients across cell membranes power all living things. Membrane potential ions en.svg
Lane explains how proton gradients across cell membranes power all living things.

Caspar Henderson, in his book review in The Telegraph , writes that Lane's book "succeeds brilliantly" as good science writing can, expanding the reader's horizons "in ways not previously imagined." Lane explains why the counterintuitive idea "that cross-membrane proton gradients power all living cells" is no mere technical detail: per gram, he notes, the power is 10,000 times denser than the sun, and it is conserved across every form of life, telling us something about how life began and how it was constrained to evolve. Henderson recommends the book as amazing and gripping, only criticising the publisher for the "pedestrian" quality of the design and printing. [4]

The founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates, reviewed the book under the heading "This Biology Book Blew Me Away". It moved him to read two of Lane's other books, and to bring him to New York to interview him. Gates noted that "As much as I loved The Vital Question, it's not for everyone. Some of the explanations are pretty technical. But this is a technical subject, and I doubt anyone else will make it much easier to understand without sacrificing crucial details." [21]

Related Research Articles

Common descent is a concept in evolutionary biology applicable when one species is the ancestor of two or more species later in time. According to modern evolutionary biology, all living beings could be descendants of a unique ancestor commonly referred to as the last universal common ancestor (LUCA) of all life on Earth.

Extraterrestrial life, alien life, or colloquially aliens, is life which does not originate from Earth. No extraterrestrial life has yet been conclusively detected. Such life might range from simple forms such as prokaryotes to intelligent beings, possibly bringing forth civilizations that might be far more advanced than humans. The Drake equation speculates about the existence of sapient life elsewhere in the universe. The science of extraterrestrial life is known as astrobiology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Life</span> Matter with biological processes

Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from matter that does not. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, organisation, metabolism, growth, adaptation, response to stimuli, and reproduction. All life over time eventually reaches a state of death and none is immortal. Many philosophical definitions of living systems have been proposed, such as self-organizing systems. Viruses in particular make definition difficult as they replicate only in host cells. Life exists all over the Earth in air, water, and soil, with many ecosystems forming the biosphere. Some of these are harsh environments occupied only by extremophiles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Günter Wächtershäuser</span> German chemist turned patent lawyer (born 1938)

Günter Wächtershäuser is a German chemist turned patent lawyer who is widely known for his work on the origin of life, and in particular his iron-sulfur world theory, a theory that life on Earth has hydrothermal origins. The hypothesis proposes that early life may have formed on the surface of iron sulfide minerals, hence the name. It was developed by retrodiction from extant biochemistry in conjunction with chemical experiments. The theory is consistent with the hypothesis that life originated near seafloor hydrothermal vents. He was encouraged and supported by science philosopher Karl R. Popper to publish his ideas.

The iron–sulfur world hypothesis is a set of proposals for the origin of life and the early evolution of life advanced in a series of articles between 1988 and 1992 by Günter Wächtershäuser, a Munich patent lawyer with a degree in chemistry, who had been encouraged and supported by philosopher Karl R. Popper to publish his ideas. The hypothesis proposes that early life may have formed on the surface of iron sulfide minerals, hence the name. It was developed by retrodiction from extant biochemistry in conjunction with chemical experiments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chemiosmosis</span> Electrochemical principle that enables cellular respiration

Chemiosmosis is the movement of ions across a semipermeable membrane bound structure, down their electrochemical gradient. An important example is the formation of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) by the movement of hydrogen ions (H+) across a membrane during cellular respiration or photosynthesis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kenneth R. Miller</span> American biologist

Kenneth Raymond Miller is an American cell biologist, molecular biologist, and Professor Emeritus of Biology at Brown University. Miller's primary research focus is the structure and function of cell membranes, especially chloroplast thylakoid membranes. Miller is a co-author of a major introductory college and high school biology textbook published by Prentice Hall since 1990.

The concept of the primordial sandwich was proposed by the chemist Günter Wächtershäuser to describe the possible origins of the first cell membranes, and, therefore, the first cell.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Last universal common ancestor</span> Most recent common ancestor of all current life on Earth

The last universal common ancestor (LUCA) is the hypothesized common ancestral cell from which the three domains of life, the Bacteria, the Archaea, and the Eukarya originated. The cell had a lipid bilayer; it possessed the genetic code and ribosomes which translated from DNA or RNA to proteins. The LUCA probably existed at latest 3.6 billion years ago, and possibly as early as 4.3 billion years ago or earlier. The nature of this point or stage of divergence remains a topic of research.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Structuralism (biology)</span> Attempt to explain evolution by forces other than natural selection

Biological or process structuralism is a school of biological thought that objects to an exclusively Darwinian or adaptationist explanation of natural selection such as is described in the 20th century's modern synthesis. It proposes instead that evolution is guided differently, by physical forces which shape the development of an animal's body, and sometimes implies that these forces supersede selection altogether.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nick Lane</span> British biochemist and writer (born 1967)

Nick Lane is a British biochemist and writer. He is a professor in evolutionary biochemistry at University College London. He has published five books to date which have won several awards.

Research concerning the relationship between the thermodynamic quantity entropy and both the origin and evolution of life began around the turn of the 20th century. In 1910 American historian Henry Adams printed and distributed to university libraries and history professors the small volume A Letter to American Teachers of History proposing a theory of history based on the second law of thermodynamics and on the principle of entropy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biology</span> Science that studies life

Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary information encoded in genes, which can be transmitted to future generations. Another major theme is evolution, which explains the unity and diversity of life. Energy processing is also important to life as it allows organisms to move, grow, and reproduce. Finally, all organisms are able to regulate their own internal environments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pre-cell</span> Hypothetical life before complete cells

The terms pre-cell (precell), proto-cell (protocell), etc. are frequently used to designate hypothetical ancestral entities precursing complete cells. The meanings of these terms vary with the different hypotheses for the early evolution of life and, accordingly, with the corresponding publications.

A protocell is a self-organized, endogenously ordered, spherical collection of lipids proposed as a rudimentary precursor to cells during the origin of life. A central question in evolution is how simple protocells first arose and how their progeny could diversify, thus enabling the accumulation of novel biological emergences over time. Although a functional protocell has not yet been achieved in a laboratory setting, the goal to understand the process appears well within reach.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abiogenesis</span> Life arising from non-living matter

Abiogenesis is the natural process by which life arises from non-living matter, such as simple organic compounds. The prevailing scientific hypothesis is that the transition from non-living to living entities on Earth was not a single event, but a process of increasing complexity involving the formation of a habitable planet, the prebiotic synthesis of organic molecules, molecular self-replication, self-assembly, autocatalysis, and the emergence of cell membranes. The transition from non-life to life has never been observed experimentally, but many proposals have been made for different stages of the process.

Evolution of cells refers to the evolutionary origin and subsequent evolutionary development of cells. Cells first emerged at least 3.8 billion years ago approximately 750 million years after Earth was formed.

The history of research into the origin of life encompasses theories about how life began, from ancient times with the philosophy of Aristotle through to the Miller-Urey experiment in 1952.

A scenario is a set of related concepts pertinent to the origin of life (abiogenesis), such as the iron-sulfur world. Many alternative abiogenesis scenarios have been proposed by scientists in a variety of fields from the 1950s onwards in an attempt to explain how the complex mechanisms of life could have come into existence. These include hypothesized ancient environments that might have been favourable for the origin of life, and possible biochemical mechanisms.

A warm little pond is a hypothetical terrestrial shallow water environment on early Earth under which the origin of life could have occurred. The term was originally coined by Charles Darwin in an 1871 letter to his friend Joseph Dalton Hooker. This idea is related to later work such as the Oparin-Haldane hypothesis and the Miller–Urey experiment, which respectively provided a hypothesis for life’s origin from a primordial soup of organics and a proof of concept for the mechanism by which biomolecules and their precursors may have formed.

References

  1. 1 2 Requarth, Tim (20 July 2015). "Book Review: Taking on 'The Vital Question' About Life". The New York Times .
  2. 1 2 Forbes, Peter (22 April 2015). "The Vital Question by Nick Lane – a game-changing book about the origins of life". The Guardian .
  3. 1 2 LePage, Michael (22 April 2015). "The Vital Question: Finding answers about the origin of life". New Scientist .
  4. 1 2 Henderson, Caspar (24 April 2015). "The Vital Question: Why Is Life the Way It Is? by Nick Lane, review: 'astonishing and intriguing". Daily Telegraph .
  5. ↑ Rampelotto, Pabulo Henrique (26 April 2010). Panspermia: A Promising Field of Research (PDF). Astrobiology Science Conference 2010. Houston, Texas: Lunar and Planetary Institute. p. 5224. Bibcode:2010LPICo1538.5224R. Archived (PDF) from the original on 27 March 2016. Retrieved 3 December 2014.
  6. ↑ "Darwin 1859 Chapter XIV, p. 490". Darwin-online.org.uk. Retrieved 11 December 2021.
  7. ↑ Marshall, Michael (11 November 2020). "Charles Darwin's hunch about early life was probably right - In a few scrawled notes to a friend, biologist Charles Darwin theorised how life began. Not only was it probably correct, his theory was a century ahead of its time". BBC News . Retrieved 11 November 2020.
  8. ↑ Witzany, Guenther (2016). "Crucial steps to life: From chemical reactions to code using agents" (PDF). BioSystems. 140: 49–57. doi:10.1016/j.biosystems.2015.12.007. PMID   26723230. S2CID   30962295.
  9. ↑ Howell, Elizabeth (8 December 2014). "How Did Life Become Complex, And Could It Happen Beyond Earth?". Astrobiology Magazine . Retrieved 14 February 2018.
  10. ↑ Tirard, Stephane (20 April 2015). "Abiogenesis". Encyclopedia of Astrobiology. p. 1. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_2-4. ISBN   978-3-642-27833-4.
  11. ↑ Levinson, Gene (2020). Rethinking evolution: the revolution that's hiding in plain sight. World Scientific. ISBN   978-1786347268. Archived from the original on 2022-05-21. Retrieved 2021-12-11.
  12. ↑ Lane, Nick. "About". Nick Lane: Biochemist and Writer. Retrieved 12 December 2021.
  13. ↑ Lane 2016, pp. 102–110.
  14. ↑ Lane 2016, pp. 19–86.
  15. ↑ Wachtershauser, G. (1 January 1990). "Evolution of the first metabolic cycles". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 87 (1): 200–204. Bibcode:1990PNAS...87..200W. doi: 10.1073/pnas.87.1.200 . PMC   53229 . PMID   2296579.
  16. ↑ Lane 2016, pp. 89–154.
  17. ↑ Lane 2016, pp. 157–233.
  18. ↑ Lane 2016, pp. 334–337.
  19. ↑ "ti:The Vital Question au:Nick Lane". WorldCat . Retrieved 17 April 2017.
  20. ↑ Lane, Nick (2016). Yaşam Neden Var? (in Turkish). Turkey: Koç University Press. ISBN   9786055250942.
  21. ↑ Gates, Bill (27 April 2016). "This Biology Book Blew Me Away". GatesNotes.

Sources

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.