[B]iochemical pathways that produce the basic building blocks of life are... conserved across practically all cells. - Nick Lane

[B]acteria, the simplest of cells, are... so complex that we still have almost everything to learn about their invisible organization.

The information encoded in DNA spells out the molecular structure of s. This, said Crick, is the 'central dogma' of all biology: genes code for proteins.

[M]ost of what I teach and interact with the students is more about life on earth and the principles governing evolution, and from my own point of view, the biochemical side, which is not normally part of the evolutionary biology... [I]t's relatively rare for me to discuss life elsewhere in the Universe with them.