The Vital Question: Why is life the way it is?

Description

'One of the most exciting science writers of our time.' - Independent Why is life the way it is? Bacteria evolved into complex life just once in four billion years of life on earth-and all complex life shares many strange properties, from sex to ageing and death. If life evolved on other planets, would it be the same or completely different? In The Vital Question, Nick Lane radically reframes evolutionary history, putting forward a cogent solution to conundrums that have troubled scientists for decades. The answer, he argues, lies in energy: how all life on Earth lives off a voltage with the strength of a bolt of lightning. In unravelling these scientific enigmas, making sense of life's quirks, Lane's explanation provides a solution to life's vital questions: why are we as we are, and why are we here at all? This is ground-breaking science in an accessible form, in the tradition of Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species, Richard Dawkins' The Selfish Gene, and Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel.

Nick Lane has published four critically acclaimed books, translated into 20 languages; most recently The Vital Question. He was awarded the 2015 Biochemical Society Award for his outstanding contribution to the molecular life sciences. Life Ascending won the 2010 Royal Society Prize for Science Books. Nick is a biochemist in the Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment at University College London. 'Like his forebears in that same department - Steve Jones, JBS Haldane - he's that rare species, a scientist who can illuminate the bewildering complexities of biology with clear, luminous words.' - Observer 'One of the most exciting science writers of our time.' - Independent

An amazing inquiry into the origins of life. I loved it. -- Bill Gates He is an original researcher and thinker and a passionate and stylish populariser. His theories are ingenious, breathtaking in scope, and challenging in every sense ... intellectually what Lane is proposing, if correct, will be as important as the Copernican revolution and perhaps, in some ways, even more so. -- Peter Forbes * Guardian * Nick Lane...is emerging as one of the most imaginative thinkers about the evolution of life on Earth...a scintillating synthesis of a new theory of life -- Clive Cookson * Financial Times * One of the deepest, most illuminating books about the history of life to have been published in recent years. * The Economist * One of the pleasures of good science writing is that it can awaken, or feed, this kind of curiosity and engagement in the reader, expanding his or her horizons in ways not previously imagined. And, for those willing to make the effort with a sometimes demanding but always clear text, Nick Lane's new book succeeds brilliantly ... I cannot recommend The Vital Question too highly. Lane's vivid descriptions and powerful reasoning will amaze and grip the reader -- Caspar Henderson * Sunday Telegraph * Nick Lane is not just a writer of words about science, he is also a doer of experiments and a thinker of thoughts. And these days he is hot on the trail of one of the biggest ideas in the universe: the meaning of the word "life". In this, his third book about energy and life, he comes triumphantly close to cracking the secret of why life is the way it is, to a depth that would boggle any ancient philosopher's mind. Solving this mystery leads Lane into a world of ideas that only Lewis Carroll could make sense of. Six impossible things become believable before breakfast when you are reading a Lane book, and there are plenty here... Like the best science writers, Lane never glosses over the detail. Instead he turns it into a series of detective stories. Poirot-like he leads you from the crime to the perpetrator, from the puzzle to the solution. The difference from a detective story is that these tales are real, and fundamental to life itself -- Matt Ridley * Times * this is a book of vast scope and ambition, brimming with bold and important ideas...The arguments are powerful and persuasive...If you're interested in life, you should read this book...it does tell an incredible, epic story -- Michael Le Page * New Scientist * Lane highlights what I think should be a fourth grand theory of life, one that is often overlooked as we remain bewitched by DNA and its several powers. Simply, the idea that life is a chemical reaction... The Vital Question is a bold, eloquent, confident book, and not an easy ride...Don't let that put you off; even The Origin of Species has its chewy sections. Like all great works, it requires effort, and Lane offers no quarter for the casual reader...Nick Lane is not only a master storyteller, but this is his research...he's that rare species, a scientist who can illuminate the bewildering complexities of biology with clear, luminous words -- Adam Rutherford * Observer * A tour de force of inventive science -- Philip Ball * Prospect * Intellectually thrilling -- Mark Haddon A potent book, one that not only brings you up to date with biology but also stuns you with the wonder of it all -- Bryan Appleyard * Sunday Times *