Book Review: The Spark of Life by Frances Ashcroft
Buy the book. Good book.
The chapters decrease in usefulness as you go through the book. The first three chapters are by far the best. Ms Ashcroft clearly has hard-won knowledge, and some understanding, of the world of cellular channels. Cellular channels, the electrical aspects of cellular process and communication, are very difficult subjects. If I might be so bold, no one yet has understood and communicated the knowledge in a way that is useful to the average educated person. But Frances certainly presents the material very well and communicates enough enthusiasm in those first few chapters to keep you reading. Chapters 4 & 5 are still good reads. After that the book is more of a survey of interesting stories and generalized knowledge.
The world of cellular ion channels and electrical communication is one of my favorite topics. It is clearly a language and currency of a different world. Yet a world that is within us. So we must be able to know ourselves better by knowing the cellular world better. There are fascinating gaps in our knowledge. Calcium is larger than Magnesium. But when a Calcium channel opens, the smaller Magnesium atoms do not go through. When our eyes receive light, it appears that the nervous impulses to the rest of our brain stop. We see because the nervous impulses are stopped. Seeing light is only because of the absence of stimulation. This rings quite close to Goethe's descriptions of light and shadow. Poor Goethe, his scientific descriptions discarded. Oh well. If any of us make remembrance of ourselves the measure of a good or useful life we are likely doomed to misery.
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