Book eleven: Life from an RNA World: The Ancestor Within by Michael Yarus

I'm quite pleased with myself for finishing this challenging read. I had to use my brain cells but it was well worth it because I got to read stuff like this:

There is another way to look at the isolation of the core octamer of the peptidyl transferase from random RNA sequences, using affinity for CCdApPuro. Because the two most probable solutions to this selection both employed the core Welch octamer to bind CCdApPuro, this suggests that, at least at the time of the origin of peptidyl transferase, evolution proceeded by deterministic routes that can be reproduced on today's laboratory benchtops. This contrasts with the view that evolution contains a large component of chance that would rule out the same outcome if "the tape were played again." Because the chance notion has gotten so much press, it is worth mentioning that evolution, at least in simpler times, can have a predictable molecular outcome.

Hell, yeah, it can!

I also thought this was kind of groovy:

The essence of life is descent with modification...Replication is life's ultimate chemical and physical survival strategy. There may be life, therefore, without water or any other familiar chemical sign. When we follow water, we will automatically be led to watery life, and we will be tempted to read this as confirmation that all life is like us. But this can easily be an error. This error potentially becomes more onerous as we move to simpler living things, who need only meet the most basic requirements, and as we move to alien environments, where our chemical intuitions will be mistaken.

Science is cool. 11 down plus 41 and volume 1 of the Norton Anthology of English Literature to go.