How the Krebs cycle powers life and death – with Nick Lane
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN commenters point to Nick Lane as an excellent science communicator whose talks on mitochondria and the chemistry of life are worth watching.
What it is
Biochemist Nick Lane gives a Royal Institution lecture arguing that the Krebs cycle is central to what makes cells alive, not just genetic information. He draws on the themes of his book Transformer to link metabolism to the origin of life, death, and aging.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2022 to 2026.
What Hacker News said
Recommends AareyBaba · 2022-08 · on “A biochemist’s view of life’s origin reframes cancer and aging”
You can watch his presentations at the Royal Institute. How the Krebs cycle powers life and death - [this video] Why is Life the Way it Is? [LINK]
Recommends wfn · 2025-05 · on “Transformer: The Deep Chemistry of Life and Death”
I've read part of Nick Lane's other book, The Vital Question , cannot comment on this new one; TL;DR competent biochemist (from complete amateur standpoint at any rate), excellent science communicator; you can watch some of his talks online. e.g. the one linked on this new book's page is good: [this video] He's really fascinated by the overall transformation process of inorganic matter -> organic matter, a sort of scientific fixation - which is always enjoyable when it's done by a competent scientist - and it's really captivating stuff. (The fact I haven't finished his previous book has nothing to do with the book material itself, if anything it really captivated me; it's just my not-amazing new
Cites zoogeny · 2022-10 · on “Intelligence Beyond the Brain [video]”
Nick Lane is another interesting person who is exploring alternative ideas related to cells. Although their work is not exactly the same, I find it interesting to ponder these ideas together. Some videos: 1. Krebs cycle and Transformers at Royal Institute: [this video] 2. A wide-ranging discussion on Lex Friedman podcast: [LINK]
Cites diroussel · 2024-06 · on “Can ketones enhance cognitive function and protect brain networks?”
Interestingly I was just watching talk from Nick Lane, presented at the Royal Institution about mitochondria and respiration. What is amazing to me is that respiration isn’t just burning glucose to make ATP, it also makes many other essential building blocks needed for health cells. [this video]
Cites morphle · 2026-04 · on “Biology is a Burrito: A text- and visual-based journey through a living cell”
The research into the origen of life looks at bottom up fundamentals (how they work) of all cells since the solar system was formed. You could start with the slides in this lecture and read the underlying papers and all the references in all those papers. You probably can find these references also in all the books he wrote. [this video] Maybe an educational text for the laymen has summarised this recently but I'm not aware of one. Most Biology from your school days have been rewritten.