Welcome to Litsy!

Energy + Structure = Life.

Sometimes you read a book and you know it has changed your life.

Nick is an incredible communicator who will have you on the edge of your seat as he describes how exciting the energy flux of a proton gradient is!!

This book will help you understand inorganics -> organics and why energy and cell structure led to sexual transmission of genes

My book club read this and while most found it difficult material, everyone liked it. Lane explains how a bacterium worked its way into an archaeon and this merging of cells created the internalized ability to make energy, which allowed for larger, more complex cells and much more. Diagrams of cellular and chemical processes would have been beneficial for the average reader, but it's worth the effort if you want to know why life works as it does.

Was listening to this audiobook via Echo when I learned that Alexa can meow! Now the kitten is conversing with Alexa in meows. She's also convinced that the meows are coming from outside the apartment.
I'm never going to finish this book. #catsoflitsy

Picked this up on audiobook because A) Amazon has Audible subscriptions for $8.95/mo. and the library doesn't have it B) I need help finishing this before my book club and I read too slowly.
BUT... the narrator keeps mispronouncing words and driving it's me nuts. The word "prion" is pronounced "PREE-on"! Genomics is NOT gee-NOM-ics! I may have to suck it up and back to reading.
#nonfictionchallenge17

Pet sitting my neighbor's cat, Diego aka The Walrus. I'm reading about cellular respiration and asking him why the term 'Krebs cycle' isn't used in this book. I think he's at a loss.
#catsoflitsy

More readable than I feared, though for me that's probably because the basics are already familiar. Very speculative in places, but interesting and mostly testable.

As I've come to understand this stuff more, I find less room for religious belief, but more room for wonder. I mean... all life on Earth originated from the same point. Our respiration is the same as bacteria. It evolved *once*.

Lane used the words "by lucky chance", and it takes some thought and background to realise how truly lucky and *implausible* we are. I'm a bag of chemical reactions, wondering about what I'm made of and why... Wow.

Most difficult thing to wrap my head around: the idea that despite their apparent orderliness, living cells increase entropy. I am sure this is opposite to other books I've read.

"I challenge you to look at one of your own cells down a microscope and distinguish it from the cells of a mushroom."

... Obviously not intended for someone studying human and cell biology. I was warned this book might be heavy going, but I'm guessing not for me. (Although, just one cell on its own? Hmm. Maybe not... Depends on WHICH human cell, probably. Blood cell? Nooooooo problem.)

Tonight, I close with a profound question for you all. ....Perhaps the most important question of our time! By the grace of God, may we reach a satisfactory answer to this most momentous of queries. 🤔 #LitsyHumor