In search of cell history : the evolution of life's building blocks / Franklin M. Harold.

Chicago ; London : University of Chicago Press, 2014.

xiv, 303 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Cells, genes, and evolution : (on the nature and workings of life) -- The tree of life : (universal phylogeny and its discontents) -- A world mostly made up of microbes : (bacteria, archaea, and eukarya) -- The deep roots of cellular life : (the common ancestry of living things) -- The perplexing chronicles of bioenergetics : (making a living, now and in the past) -- Life's devices : (on the evolution of prokaryotic cells and their parts) -- Emergence of the eukaryotes : (the second mystery in cell evolution) -- Symbionts into organelles : (mitochondria, plastids, and their kin) -- Reading the rocks : (what we can infer from geology) -- Ultimate riddle : (origin of cellular life) -- The crooked paths of cell evolution : (cell evolution is special) -- Summing up : journey without maps.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 261-288) and index.