The Vital Question

Selected reading: Selected chapters and argument.

Profile Books, 2015; ISBN 9781781250365

View the work and reading plans

How to study this source

• How did chemistry become life?

  backgroundSelected chapters and argument

  Reconstruct Lane’s energetic argument and test its dependence on membrane properties.

• Where did complex cells come from?

  backgroundSelected chapters and argument

  Extract one claim and distinguish the evidence supporting it from the author’s interpretation.

• How can an energy constraint shape an evolutionary explanation?

  coreIntroduction or preface and opening chapter. Record the edition and translator before reading.

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

• How can an energy constraint shape an evolutionary explanation?

  coreComplete main text; the sequential locations below cover the whole work.

  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

• The Origin of Membrane Bioenergetics

  Nick Lane · William Martin. Compare assumptions, evidence and scope with the source above. These are editorial companions, not necessarily direct responses.

• The Physiology and Habitat of the Last Universal Common Ancestor

  Madelene C. Weiss et al.. Compare assumptions, evidence and scope with the source above. These are editorial companions, not necessarily direct responses.

• Template-Directed Synthesis of a Genetic Polymer in a Model Protocell

  Sheref S. Mansy et al.. Compare assumptions, evidence and scope with the source above. These are editorial companions, not necessarily direct responses.

• Protocells and RNA Self-Replication

  Gerald F. Joyce · Jack W. Szostak. Compare assumptions, evidence and scope with the source above. These are editorial companions, not necessarily direct responses.

• The Eightfold Path to Non-Enzymatic RNA Replication

  Jack W. Szostak. Compare assumptions, evidence and scope with the source above. These are editorial companions, not necessarily direct responses.