Reading Room
|
Power, Sex and Suicide Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life by Nick Lane In each of our cells there are hundreds of biological batteries: phenomenal structures derived from bacteria and known as mitochondria. Nick Lane’s book details the good, the bad and the ugly contributions that mitochondria make to life. The racy title does not convey the amount of evolutionary biology contained in Lane’s book and perhaps it should because, essentially, that is what this book is about: the evolution of multicellular organisms and the part that mitochondria play in the process. Lane writes with a fluent, easy-to-read style and discusses some major theories that are truly amazing and enlightening. These include the evolution of apoptosis to stimulate sex and then being used to kill cells, genders evolving to prevent conflict between mitochondrial genomes, new approaches to tackling the symptoms of ageing by counteracting free-radical leakage and natural selection acting on mitochondria. Lane makes what could have been a dense, impenetrable science book very readable by adding summary passages tying everything together at intervals throughout the book and by the welcome inclusion of a comprehensive glossary. He also gives touching insights into the personal lives of the scientists who made ground-breaking discoveries regarding mitochondria. Nevertheless, I did wonder at whom this kind of book is aimed? Only people with at least an undergraduate background would be able to fully grasp the concepts within; however, I would definitely recommend that anyone take time to read the Introduction (a molecular biology tutorial) and Epilogue (a summary of all the chapters without the full arguments, and with an interesting passage about Lane’s own contribution to primary mitochondrial research). A refreshing aspect of the book is that it draws in a vast number of aspects of biology, but sometimes the balance seems a little strange. For example, there is an enormous amount on scaling, but very little on mitochondrial division, one of the more elegant and well-documented organelle events. The book is beautifully illustrated with photographs and drawings: I would have liked to see more of these, and the drawings in particular deserve colour to bring them to life. This notwithstanding, I never thought that reading a lengthy book entirely about mitochondria could be so pleasurable. Lane excels at highlighting the importance and significance of this organelle, resulting in a text which is accessible and fascinating in equal measure.
Published by Oxford University Press, ISBN# 0199205647
|
