The Way of the Cell: Molecules, Organisms, and the Order of Life

Harold focuses closely on microorganisms, which, he observes, do not often figure in popular books of biology, perhaps because most general readers associate them only with disease and not with their many beneficial contributions to the world's workings. In fact, he suggests, the answer to Schrödinger's question is likely to be found at the microscopic level. Current evolutionary models derived from the study of ribosomal RNA from hundreds of species of plants and animals now point to the development of life from some cenancestor in a setting billions of years old, one in which "microorganisms rather than dinosaurs fill the horizon." The identity of that ancestor is not yet known, he writes; it may have resembled a bacterium, or it may have been a loosely organized assemblage of protocells "engaged in the promiscuous exchange of genetic information."

No matter what it looked like, Harold notes in this instructive survey of modern biological theory, life probably originated in an apparently inhospitable environment, as studies of deep-ocean thermal vents and the lithosphere now point to, rather than in the oceanic "chemical stew" of old. It's a fascinating story, and Harold tells it ably. --Gregory McNamee

Harold's eloquence is remarkable. Consider the following quotes:

1. "Over time functional systems would have "crystallized" into successful configurations, and therefore become less receptive to the import of novelty..."
2. "The genetic free-trade zone fragmented into protected enclaves, not abruptly but gradually on a time-scale of millions of years..."
3. "...leaving a huge lacuna in any account of cell evolution, but fostering a crop of stimulating conjectures."
4. "Molecular phylogenists, who draw their opinions from the bedrock of gene sequences, view the matter somewhat differently but still in a glass, darkly."
5. "The better part of valor may be to sit tight and await the tide of new data, but only dullards are proof against the temptations of myth-making."
6. "There is a fine air of whimsy, about those imaginative tales ...They also stop insouciantly around patches of quicksand, such as what brought about early cellular fusions that are not permitted to contemporary prokaryotes..."
7. "The profusion that came after is built like a fugue upon the deep theme of eukaryotic order."
8. "On the outer banks of science, one often suspects that the believer is happy while the doubter is wise; and yet, too critical a spirit is apt to overlook the genuine contribution that complexity studies have already made."
9. "The rocky path from RNA replicators to DNA genes and from catalytic RNA to protein enzymes calls for stout boots and a good head for heights."

This makes for engrossing reading, as the mystique of Biology can be overlooked when the text is dry and scholarly. There is delight, however, in reading Harold, similar to what the reader can get from Stephen Jay Gould, Richard Dawkins, and Stuart Kauffman, to name a few. I can imagine Harold entertaining his audience in a seminar with his penchant for combining words elegantly.

Today I was in a seminar where a famous molecular biologist (also a cancer biologist) admitted to a sabotage against the reductionist agenda as more scientists begin to realize that life processes cannot be just explained by the panoply of bioorganic molecules, proteins especially, and the genes that encode them. Harold fiercely stresses that DNA, for all the glorification that it deserves, is not all there is. New properties emerge as biological molecules find themselves in different cellular compartments and environments, at different stages in the development of the organism, and as the organisms themselves explore all possibilities of trading and swapping genes, and even fusing their entire bodies in one. Read this book, and be enveloped by the biological mystique!
October 25, 2003