"In Transformer, Lane indulges in a great many of the banes of popular science writing... These kinds of over-earnest attempts to defang a complicated subject are an enduring mystery; the people who need them won't read the book, and the people who'll read the book don't need them. ...Fortunately, Lane’s discussion ...is itself very winningly animated, and that saves it ...Lane’s personal excitement ...goes a long way toward making ...biochemistry comprehensible ...[T]his is done through personalities; Transformer is as much about the people investigating the Krebs cycle as it is about the cycle ...That kind of personality pervades the book and makes it ...consistently fascinating reading."