Life's Engines: How Microbes Made Earth Habitable (Science Essentials): 24

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He describes a hidden world of extraordinary complexity, taking us through the great discoveries that have taught us the rules. So often times, within evolution, we aren't using the ideal framework, we are using and improvising an existing framework which is constantly being jerry-rigged to fit new circumstances. Like how last chapter he said he accidentally discovered the death phase first, when observing without explaining or describing has never been the criterion for discovery. Do you feel weighed down by stress and pressure, held back by judgement and lack of opportunity, and critcised by everyone – including yourself?

Through photosynthesis these bacteria used the sun’s rays to cleave water molecules freeing the hydrogen for carbohydrate production and discarding the oxygen. An amazing look into the structure and specific makeup of microbes and how they make pickles and make up the air we breathe. For a subject that can seem a bit dry, Falkowski brings an energy and clarity of thought that is infectious.

Several drivers were approached to drive for the team, including Gabriele Tarquini, Pierluigi Martini, Marco Apicella, Roberto Moreno and Gianni Morbidelli. Given the chemistry of the varied metabolisms of the microbes, the community “is in effect, a miniature biological electron marketplace. I get jargon makes it easier for academics to communicate with each other, but it also has a tendency to make the point murkier and too difficult to understand.

While reading this book, a strange thought crossed my mind: what an achievement it would be for this cluster of books about the deep history of the Earth to have been fictional, a human invention. The author is uniquely qualified, perhaps singularly so, to cover topics ranging over broad time and space scales with a scholarly, transdisciplinary perspective that ranges from fundamental physics and chemistry, to Earth and ocean sciences. He offers short pieces on the contributions of scientists such as Darwin and Robert Hooke and inventors like Leeuwenhoek whose microscopes opened a new world. An outstanding attempt to popularize the role of microbes, especially bacteria and archaea, in making multicellular eukaryotic life possible.

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The depth of understanding Falkowski bestows upon his reader will help them understand their host planet on a fundamental level. Life's Engines takes readers deep into the microscopic world to explore how these marvelous creatures made life on Earth possible-and how human life today would cease to exist without them. It also says a little about the electron/hole trading process photosynthesis, but not in great detail. It felt like a missed opportunity in a section already severely lacking information on the book’s supposed main characters. This book was overwhelming to me in some parts - some background in microbiology is needed - but still a good read on how these lowly and unassuming microbes shaped the planet's atmosphere and oceans and set the stage for the emergence of more complicated lifeforms.They make them at the dinner table, or in a meeting room, where personal history, your own unique view of the world, ego, pride, marketing, and odd incentives are scrambled together.