The Song of the Cell

which came first, the informational molecule or the functional molecule, DNA or the protein that reproduces it.

the steps leading to the transition from no-life to a living protocell: The synthesis and accumulation of small organic molecules, including amino acids and nucleotides. Phosphates are also important, given that they are the backbone of RNA and DNA. The joining of such ingredients into larger molecules, such as proteins and nucleic acids. The aggre

You may begin to imagine its genome as an instruction manual for an exquisite piece of nanotechnology crafted by some alien civilization.

So long as we insist that cells are computers and genes are their code, that proteins are machines and organelles are factories, the picture that emerges is a clumsy marriage of the mechanical and the anthropomorphic. Life becomes an informational process sprinkled with invisible magic.

Shrink yourself down to the size of a molecule in the Krebs cycle. Succinate. The cell you’re part of is the size of a city, a metropolis on the scale of London, Tokyo or New York. What connects you with another molecule of succinate across the city, twenty miles away? In what sense are you part of the same entity, the same self? You won’t even be