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Kyle Copas @kylecopas.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Nick Lane with a masterful cliffhanger at chapter’s end. Fantastic science writing & storytelling that adds another jolt to “the thrilling question of the origin of life” he’s tackling in #Transformer:

Could it be that the origin of life structured metabolism through the reactions of H, and CO,, to form Krebs-cycle inter-mediates? That this biosynthetic engine was hard-wired into life from the beginning, the driving force that gave rise to genes and proteins? That billions of years later, as the atmosphere filled with oxygen, the Krebs cycle flipped its direction, creating an extraordinary opportunity to strip and burn organic molecules in a brave new high-octane world? That this reversal placed a tension on the heart of metabolism, which was now obliged to create and destroy from the self-same molecules - a case of having your cake and eating it? That this tension is at the root of ageing and diseases such as cancer, where the fragile balance between energy flow and growth is paramount? Read on.