Enlarge / Computer illustration of mitochondria, membrane-enclosed cellular organelles that produce energy.KATERYNA KON/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/GETTY
More than 1.5 billion years ago, a momentous thing happened: Two small, primitive cells became one. Perhaps more than any event—barring the origin of life itself—this merger radically changed the course of evolution on our planet.
One cell ended up inside the other and evolved into a structure that schoolkids learn to refer to as the “powerhouse of the cell”: the mitochondrion. This new structure provided a tremendous energetic advantage to its host—a precondition for the later evolution of complex, multicellular life.
But that’s only
→ Continue reading at Ars Technica