Like 7 years ago I read the most amazing book on biology..it described that inside cells literal skyscrapers of protein-based structures and machinery took indi

Like 7 years ago I read the most amazing book on biology..it described that inside cells literal skyscrapers of protein-based structures and machinery took individual ATP molecules and stripped them of an outer electron thus creating what I believe is called a "proton gradient". This imbalance of electrical charge across a membrane is LITERALLY what creates life. Everything that living things do to recreate themselves is powered by this machinery and, as I remember this book telling me, the idea that a cell could suddenly pop into existence with all this truly incredible and unbelievable complex machinery is exactly like the idea of taking all the parts of a 747 and throwing them into a large box and then opening the box and a fully functional 747 is there waiting to take off. The use of proton gradients gives an insight not only into how life got going in the first place, but also, perhaps, its deepest mindfuck point: the evolution of complex eukaryotic (nucleated) cells, which arose just once in 4 billion years of evolution. There are no signs at all of some sort of gradual path to eukaryotic cells as evolution would lend us to think. Just the sudden appearance of this self-replicating nucleic cell which allows ALL multi-cellular life to exist. I was utterly shocked that it took me 53 years to learn this most amazing of all facts I've every learned, and to be honest it makes the whole Black Hole fascination seem pedantic and almost trivial. Of course I hate myself for not remembering either the name of this book or it's incredible author, so yes I know I suck.