Nick Lane, “A Matter of Energy: Biology From First Principles” (Open Agenda, 2021)
New Books in Science, Technology, and Society
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Is There Any Balance Between Bacteria and Archaa?
Bacteria tend to be more common than then archaa, but i don't think anybody would ascribe that to the difference in the steria chemistry. The head groupcoin bacteria, tend to be a bit more sophisticated. They've come up with more different forms of chemistrya metabolism. That may be related to the membranes. Possibly, the bacterial membranes are a bit sloppier. Forked molecules, the isoprines, give them archail membranes a bit more rigidity and things can diffuse more quickly across a more liquid membrane. So there may be differences there. Nobody really knows.
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