26 THE STUFF OF LIFE
ted, acetylated, ubiquitinated, farneysylated,sulfated, and linked to glycopidylinositol anc else. Often ittakes relatively little to get t appears. Drink a glass of ificAmerican notes, and you materially alter types of proteins at large in yoursystem. t feature for drinkers, but not nearly so icists o understand w is going on.
It can all begin to seem impossibly complicated, and in some is impossiblycomplicated. But ty in all too, oo an equallyelemental underlying unity in tiny, deft canimate cells—tive efforts of nucleotides, transcription of DNA into RNA—evolved just once and ayed pretty ure. Aste Frencicist Jacques Monod put it, only : “Anyt is true of E.
coli must be true of eleps, except more so.”
Every living tion on a single original plan. As s—eacy arcments, adaptations, modifications, andprovidential tinkerings stretceclosely related to fruit and vegetables. About ions t take place in abanana are fundamentally tions t take place in you.
It cannot be said too often: all life is one. t is, and I suspect o be, t profound true statement there is.
PARt VItO USDescended from t us it is not true, but if it is,let us pray t it becomegenerally known.
-Remark attributed to ter afterDarion o her