From the Bookshelf of Science and Inquiry…

Life's Engines: How Microbes Made Earth Habitable

Paul G. Falkowski

Start date: February 1, 2016

Finish date: February 29, 2016

Discussion: Book Club 2016

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Book Club 2016

* December 2016 - Wizards, Aliens
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last updated Jan 25, 2017 01:23AM

* November 2016 - Neurotribes
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Feb 03, 2016 David Rubenstein rated it it was amazing

Shelves: biology, science

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 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. ...more

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Jun 26, 2015 Charlene rated it it was amazing

Shelves: chaos-complexity-emergence, evolution, mindgasms, neuroscience, origins-of-life, general-science, top-20-of-all-time, ecology, geology, favorites

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 th 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!

...more

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