Even though I was not a big fan of the first part of the book, it got better as we read continued to the end of the book.
In part 5, N. Lane talks about the enforced suicide of cells called apoptosis. He stresses on the importance of it, because if it fails it can in many cases lead to cancer. Many more new cells are produced than actually survive, because the over-production is needed for development and repair. The faulty cells or the cells that are no longer needed are programed to commit suicide by the mitochondria for the greater good of the organism.
The most interesting section in the book was part 6 where the readers get an answer to the question why there are two sexes and how exactly it came to be like this. It is quite entertaining to read how the author emphasizes the importance and the almost sounds like unimportance of men in this chapter. He describes the sperm as parasitic because they receive many benefits but necessarily do not give much compared …show more content…
Nick Lane gives an explanation of how mitochondria is related to all this. Power, Sex, Suicide presents the ideas of D. Harman, a biologist who came up with the mitochondrial theory of aging, and gives a detailed explanation of the correlation between metabolic rate and the span of life. He claimed that the faster the metabolic rate, the shorter the lifespan because more oxygen is used which causes free-radical leakage from mitochondria. Such radicals are destructive and attack organelles of the cell and if there is too much of it the cell cannot fight back and repair it. The author also wrote a very interesting section on mitochondrial diseases in which he told about the first case discovered, a 27-year old Swedish woman who’s mitochondria produced excessive amount of ATP, and how every mitochondrial disease effects people differently and very few generalizations can be
In part 5, N. Lane talks about the enforced suicide of cells called apoptosis. He stresses on the importance of it, because if it fails it can in many cases lead to cancer. Many more new cells are produced than actually survive, because the over-production is needed for development and repair. The faulty cells or the cells that are no longer needed are programed to commit suicide by the mitochondria for the greater good of the organism.
The most interesting section in the book was part 6 where the readers get an answer to the question why there are two sexes and how exactly it came to be like this. It is quite entertaining to read how the author emphasizes the importance and the almost sounds like unimportance of men in this chapter. He describes the sperm as parasitic because they receive many benefits but necessarily do not give much compared …show more content…
Nick Lane gives an explanation of how mitochondria is related to all this. Power, Sex, Suicide presents the ideas of D. Harman, a biologist who came up with the mitochondrial theory of aging, and gives a detailed explanation of the correlation between metabolic rate and the span of life. He claimed that the faster the metabolic rate, the shorter the lifespan because more oxygen is used which causes free-radical leakage from mitochondria. Such radicals are destructive and attack organelles of the cell and if there is too much of it the cell cannot fight back and repair it. The author also wrote a very interesting section on mitochondrial diseases in which he told about the first case discovered, a 27-year old Swedish woman who’s mitochondria produced excessive amount of ATP, and how every mitochondrial disease effects people differently and very few generalizations can be