"What is life" is one of my favorite books. It's packed full of fascinating explanations of how the most basic elements of life came to be.
For example, did you know that sex evolved from cannibalism among single-celled organisms? Quote from p.139:
"Microscopists sometimes witness microbial wrangling in which a hungry cell engulfs a neighbor. But the cells do not always digest what they engulf."
"Harvard University biologist Lemuel Roscoe Cleveland saw cannibalized protists live on the half-devoured. The protists he studied, covered by 9(2)+2 undulipodia, are called hypermastigotes. Normal hypermastigotes, which contain only a single set of chromosomes, live in the swollen hindguts of wood-eating termites and cockroaches. Cleaveland saw the hypermastigotes engulf one another. He noted that once they did, their membranes merged to make them into doubled cells. Most of the doubles died. But Cleaveland also saw that some of these doubled beings reproduced. Although sloppily, a doubled microbial monster would undergo cell division and give rise to another doubled microbial monster."
"Cleaveland saw how thwarted cannibalism could have led to the first set of of doubled chromosomes. Moreover, abnormal cell divisions--a precursor to the meiosis that takes place in our own cells--could restore the merged would-be cannibals to their original single set of chromosomes."
...
"Once upon a time, we think, eating and mating were the same. Terminal microbial indigestion may seem rather unromantic as the source of the human sex drive. But Cleveland's picture of hungry, serendipitously mating hypermastigotes presents a mix of comedy and terror appropriate for the origin of sex."
For example, did you know that sex evolved from cannibalism among single-celled organisms? Quote from p.139:
"Microscopists sometimes witness microbial wrangling in which a hungry cell engulfs a neighbor. But the cells do not always digest what they engulf."
"Harvard University biologist Lemuel Roscoe Cleveland saw cannibalized protists live on the half-devoured. The protists he studied, covered by 9(2)+2 undulipodia, are called hypermastigotes. Normal hypermastigotes, which contain only a single set of chromosomes, live in the swollen hindguts of wood-eating termites and cockroaches. Cleaveland saw the hypermastigotes engulf one another. He noted that once they did, their membranes merged to make them into doubled cells. Most of the doubles died. But Cleaveland also saw that some of these doubled beings reproduced. Although sloppily, a doubled microbial monster would undergo cell division and give rise to another doubled microbial monster."
"Cleaveland saw how thwarted cannibalism could have led to the first set of of doubled chromosomes. Moreover, abnormal cell divisions--a precursor to the meiosis that takes place in our own cells--could restore the merged would-be cannibals to their original single set of chromosomes."
...
"Once upon a time, we think, eating and mating were the same. Terminal microbial indigestion may seem rather unromantic as the source of the human sex drive. But Cleveland's picture of hungry, serendipitously mating hypermastigotes presents a mix of comedy and terror appropriate for the origin of sex."