The Vital Question: Introduction

Evolutionary biochemistry and accounts of how energy conversion shaped life. Trace the mechanism and distinguish evidence from a proposed historical sequence.

How to study this source

• How can an energy constraint shape an evolutionary explanation?

  coreThe Vital Question: Introduction, from the opening to the first account of the energy problem.

  Evolutionary biochemistry and accounts of how energy conversion shaped life. Trace the mechanism and distinguish evidence from a proposed historical sequence.

Ideas and questions

Read background definitions when a term blocks the argument. Then return to the source and reconstruct its claim in your own words.

Read alongside, read against