In this book, Nick Lane radically reframes evolutionary history, putting forward a cogent solutions that have troubled scientists for decades. The answer lies in energy: all life on Earth lives off a voltage with the strength of a lightening bolt. Lane's explanation provides a solution to life's vital question, why are we here at all. Book price includes 2nd class parcel post in UK only. Seller Inventory # 07601

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Bibliographic Details

Title: The Vital Question; Why is Life the Way it ...

Publisher: Profile Books Ltd, UK

Publication Date: 2015

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Very Good

Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good

Edition: 1st Edition

About this title

Synopsis:

To explain the mystery of how life evolved on Earth, Nick Lane explores the deep link between energy and genes.

Why is life the way it is? For two billion years, bacteria continually evolved without ever changing their basic form. Then single-celled organisms made the jump into complex life. In The Vital Question, award-winning author and biochemist Nick Lane argues that the evolution of multicellular life—the kind found in fungi, plants, animals, and humans—was contingent on a single event: the first successful prokaryotic endosymbiosis, or a bacterium living within another bacterium. Building on the pillars of evolutionary theory, Lane’s hypothesis draws on cutting-edge research into the link between energy and genes to suggest a novel account of cellular evolution and large-scale life as we know it. At once rigorous and enchanting, the conclusions in The Vital Question not only explain the vast sweep of evolutionary history but also provide insights that stretch forward into our understanding of sex, speciation, and the complexity of human life.

About the Author:

Nick Lane is a biochemist at the Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment at University College, London and the founding member of the UCL Consortium for Mitochondrial Research. He was recently awarded a 2015 Biochemical Society Award for his outstanding contribution to the molecular life sciences. He is the author of Life Ascending (9781861978189), Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the meaning of life (9780199205646), and Oxygen: The molecule that made the world (9780198607830), all of which were widely praised by both the scientific and popular press.

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