Diamond, J.: "Quantitative Design of Life," Nature, December 1993, pages 405–6. A discussion of the evolution of physiology.

Harold, F.: The Vital Force: A Study of Bioenergetics, San Francisco, W. H. Freeman and Company, 1986. A comprehensive review of the advances that have been made in the last 10 years in our understanding of how organisms process energy.

Hinkle, P.C., and R.E. McCarty: "How Cells Make ATP," Scientific American, March 1978, pages 104–23. A description of how cells use electrons stripped from foodstuffs to make ATP.

Kraut, J.: "How Do Enzymes Work?" Science, October 28, 1988, vol. 242, pages 533–40. A clear presentation of the idea that enzymes work by stabilizing transitory transition states.

Lehninger, A., D. Nelson, and M. Cox: Principles of Biochemistry, ed. 2, 1993, Worth Publishers, New York. A standard comprehensive text for biochemistry.

Riddihough, G.: "Picture an Enzyme at Work," Nature, April 1993, page 793. A discussion of how conformational changes in enzymes enable them to function.

Wachtershauser, G.: "Evolution of the First Metabolic Cycles," Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA, 1990, vol. 87, pages 200–4. A suggestion that metabolic cycles played a key role in the evolution of life.

Westheimer, F.: "Why Nature Chose Phosphates," Science, March 6, 1987, vol. 235, pages 1173–77. A wonderfully thoughtful analysis of the appropriateness of phosphates for biological but not laboratory chemistry.