Power, Sex, Suicide is a book written by Nick Lane, a UCL biochemist, that teaches its readers that there is more meaning to the origin of life than just DNA. This book is a summary of the biggest discoveries and debates of the 21st century molecular biology. He is trying to make people understand that mitochondria are much more than just a “powerhouse to the cell”. He brings out how influential mitochondria are on our lives and how little we know about them. In the first section of the book (parts 1-3) we find out that Mitochondria are the reason why we are here, why we are large, complex organisms and why bacteria will never become anything a powerful as we are.
The book starts off with the author’s explanation of the beginning of the eukaryotic cells. He describes how formerly free-living bacteria could have evolved into the vastly stripped-down mitochondria. It is thought that approximately one and a half billion years ago two types of bacteria created a symbiotic union that lead to formation of the eukaryotic cell, through the process of endosymbiosis. He also discusses whether this
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The chapter on origin of life was particularly interesting as he explained the debate over how first DNA was made and he also talks about the Miller Urey experiment, which I found fascinating when I studied it in high school, and also about the first cell. In part 3, he answers the questions about why bacteria have not evolved into something more complex and why/how mitochondria are responsible for the complexity of different organisms. Bigger cells can support more genetic material and produce more energy (as respiration requires a membrane, eukaryotic cells have more of it and can therefore produce more ATP), which leads to the possibility of more greater complexity - and in particular to multicellular