Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution by Nick Lane

Jan 02, 2012 Bettie rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Hayes, Susanna

Shelves: published-2009, winter-20112012, nonfiction, sciences, essays

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Mar 21, 2013 Rachael rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: popular-science

Life Ascending is an excellent scientific book on evolution. I was a bit weary picking it up, as evolution has never been one of my favourite topics to read about, but I was pleasantly surprised by this. However, I would only recommend this if you are prepared to spend a lot of reading time mulling over the past bits you have read.

Lane presents a fascinating account of the most important contributors to modern life and how they evolved. It's exceptionally in-depth, and is very well reasoned an...more

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Feb 14, 2013 Ioannis Savvas rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: Βιολογία

Ο Nick Lane είναι βιοχημικός και το βιβλίο του Life Ascending κέρδισε το Royal Society Prize for Science Books για το 2010. Διαβάζοντας πρόσφατα ένα φρικτό βιβλίο εκλαϊκευμένης επιστήμης, η σύγκριση είναι αναπόφευκτη. Ο Nick Lane συνθέτει μια συμφωνία επιστημονικών δεδομένων για να παρουσιάσει ένα καταπληκτικό μουσικό έργο με πρωταγωνιστή την Εξέλιξη. Ο συγγραφέας επιλέγει τις δέκα σημαντικότερες «εφευρέσεις» της Εξέλιξης και συνθέτει δέκα κεφάλαια κλιμακωτά. Βήμα-βήμα ανεβαίνει την εξελικτική π...more

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Feb 08, 2013 Ralph Hermansen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"Life Ascending" by Dr. Nick Lane is a fascinating adventure. I would not recommend it to you as your first book on evolution and probably not as your second or third. However, if you have read enough to somewhat appreciate the role of DNA and genes in evolutionary science, then you will find this book very worth reading. The author is a biochemist and he looks at evolution through a biochemist's eyes. He stops short of introducing structural formulas of organic compounds and focuses more on des...more "Life Ascending" by Dr. Nick Lane is a fascinating adventure. I would not recommend it to you as your first book on evolution and probably not as your second or third. However, if you have read enough to somewhat appreciate the role of DNA and genes in evolutionary science, then you will find this book very worth reading. The author is a biochemist and he looks at evolution through a biochemist's eyes. He stops short of introducing structural formulas of organic compounds and focuses more on describing in words, the effects of these chemicals on life processes. In other words, he writes in a popular prose to keep a wider audience interested. Being a chemist myself, but never having taken biochemistry in college, I would have liked to have seen what some of those molecules looked like.

Dr. Lane can reach farther back in time than any author who I have ever read. All living things have a common origin if you go back far enough in time. I never imagined that common traits go so far back as this author has identified. Multi-celled life may have evolved less than one billion years ago. Yet, our origins go back much farther than that. The first chapter entitled,"The Origin of Life" takes you back to the very beginning of life on this planet. He discusses the theories, which have come and gone. He identifies their strengths and weaknesses. Finally, he introduces the theory which he believes is most likely to be true. He delivers a convincing argument for it. The remaining chapters examine: DNA, Photosynthesis, The Complex Cell, Sex, Movement, Sight, Hot Blood, Consciousness, and Death. Each chapter examines the history of research on these topics, evaluates the prevailing theories and finally presents the reader with his favorite and sometimes personal explanation for how evolution worked its magic.

I enjoyed this book immensely! I had previously done a lot of reading on evolutionary topics and wondered if I would be rehashing the same old concepts. I didn't need to worry about that with Dr. Lane. He took me to places I had never been before and made the trip very stimulating.

Ralph D. Hermansen, September 30, 2010 (less)

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Jul 14, 2012 Gavin Drury rated it 5 of 5 stars

"I think that the picture painted in this book is true. Life most surely evolved, along the lines described here. That is not dogma, but evidence tested in reality and corrected accordingly. Whether this grand picture is compatible with faith in God, I do not know. For some people, intimately acquainted with evolution, it is; for others, it is not. But whatever our beliefs, this richness of understanding should be a cause for marvel and celebration. It is a most wonderful thing to share so much...more "I think that the picture painted in this book is true. Life most surely evolved, along the lines described here. That is not dogma, but evidence tested in reality and corrected accordingly. Whether this grand picture is compatible with faith in God, I do not know. For some people, intimately acquainted with evolution, it is; for others, it is not. But whatever our beliefs, this richness of understanding should be a cause for marvel and celebration. It is a most wonderful thing to share so much with the life around us on this blue-green marble, floating through the bleak infinity of space. There is more than grandeur in this view of life. There is fallibility and majesty, and the best human eagerness to know."

If you are interested in evolution, this is a fantastic book, though because it is

quite heavy it may be better to start with something like Richard Dawkin's 'Greatest Show On Earth'. Winner of last year's Royal Society prize for Science Writing, it has some of the latest scientific research. This book covers ten particular aspects of life, how exactly they work, how they developed through the process of evolution, and how we know this. The areas he chose to cover fell under the criteria of 'the invention had to revolutionise the living world, and the planet; it had to be of surpassing importance today; it must be a direct outcome of evolution by natural selection; and finally the invention had to be iconic in some way. Some readers may disagree with his ten choices, as the introduction acknowledges, but I went with the flow and it made sense to me."
Starting with the Origin Of Life, it doesn't just trace life back through DNA history to the earliest known forms of bacteria, but goes much deeper into the chemical reactions required to create and maintain these early bacteria and how this could be achieved with what is known about early Earth. It suggests we are not far from finding out exactly how life can emerge from simple proteins. The chapter on Sight, one of the most interesting, shows that the human eye is not as flawed as oft cited and traces back to the origin of sight.

Throughout all the different chapters - Sex, Hot Blood, Death, Photosynthesis to name a few - you will learn in depth, the beauty of each of these systems and how and why they evolved, far more than just 'survival of the fittest' and 'selfish genes', but the chemical balances and trade off restrictions involved. One of the most fascinating things I've learned from this book is how and why aging and death evolved, and is not just the natural order of things. The only chapter that deviates from the rest of the book is the chapter on Consciousness as there's no accepted definition of what exactly consciousness is, but it takes a scientific analysis of how it developed and how it may be explained.
The book does at points offer up competing theories and admits where scientific knowledge is lacking.

Ultimately, reading this gave me a much deeper realisation of the beauty of evolution than I already held. And even if at times some of the chemical processes went beyond my understanding, it's an acceptable level and there's far more information here that's accessible to anyone with an interest in the subject.

Score: 6/7(less)

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Apr 01, 2012 Maurice rated it 4 of 5 stars

And how did consiousness rise from lifeless matter? His chapter about consciousness has some interesting things to say about that. With that I mean that is has become possible to observe the brain working, seeing specialised regions at work in the brain.
They see how the brain - while the person looks at an object- has 30 to 60 regions of specialised neurons firing. They only fire when their litle aspect is recognised.
E.g. we have neurons specialised in firing only when an object moves from left...more

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Mar 31, 2012 Stephen rated it 5 of 5 stars

For my money, few subjects are as impressive, beautiful, and awe-inspiring as biology and evolution. Is there a greater drama in the cosmos outside the long play of life, its actors emerging epoch by epoch -- many vanishing into the darkness once more, but not before leaving their mark upon those that follow them? The thought that the immense and varied mass of life on this earth, so rich as to beggar description, is ultimately unified by common ancestry still staggers me. Earth's history of lif...more For my money, few subjects are as impressive, beautiful, and awe-inspiring as biology and evolution. Is there a greater drama in the cosmos outside the long play of life, its actors emerging epoch by epoch -- many vanishing into the darkness once more, but not before leaving their mark upon those that follow them? The thought that the immense and varied mass of life on this earth, so rich as to beggar description, is ultimately unified by common ancestry still staggers me. Earth's history of life is a parade of 'endless forms most beautiful', and in Life Ascending Nick Lane revisits some of the most pivotal moments in evolution history: the origin of life, the development of DNA, and the rises of photosynthesis, complex cells, sex, movement, sight, hot blood, consciousness, and death.

Though I've never heard of Lane, he apparently has a strong following in Britain. I can certainly see why. He is easily one of the clearest science communicators I've read, using lively examples to illustrate key points, like describing the two different kinds of chlorophyll (both vital parts of photosynthesis) as a grasping miser and a street hustler. One forces water to surrender an electron; the other forces carbon dioxide to accept the same. Lane's specialty is biochemistry, so he is strongest early on when writing on DNA and photosynthesis; his treatment of topics like consciousness is comparatively lighter, but still raises up interesting questions, and I appreciate an author far more for acknowledging his limitations than attempting to sound authoritative in spite of them. In any given chapter, Lane first explains the significance of a key invention, and then -- as current scientific knowledge allows -- delves into how it functions and its origins. He does not necessarily devote equal time to all three sections; in the chapter on movement, for instance, he wastes little time explaining why being able to move is an asset, choosing to devote most of the chapter on how muscles function. Later on, when writing on consciousness, Lane concerns himself with the meaning of consciousness rather than the cause of it, which we don't fully understand. Lane is thorough in explaining how we came to our current understanding, often working through rival theories before arriving that which currently prevails, or is the most accurate in his view. What I appreciate most about Lane is his ability to break down a topic into its most basic parts, allowing lay readers to arrive at a basic understanding of the subject at hand without being overwhelmed by information -- but he's not so general as to leave us ignorant of the actual facts, beyond generalities that we can't explain. The weakest section of the book is that of death: Lane doesn't explain why it is a wonderful invention. He mentions that it is tied to sex, and is thus tangentially important for that reason, but the bulk of the chapter is written on our attempts to find out why we age, with an eye for 'curing' it. He doesn't mention the role that death plays in evolution, which is a curious omission.

The highest praise I can give Lane is that he takes me back to 2006, when I was just starting to realize how incredibly wonderful and interesting science could be. A keeper, certainly, and one to revisit in the future and enjoy again.
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Jan 29, 2011 Mark rated it 5 of 5 stars

Life Ascending, winner of the 2010 Royal Society prize for popular science books, is one of the greatest of all time. The OEDB list of greatest popular science books is out of date. This is science on the cutting edge, championing theories that have been gaining attention slowly in recent years, among those interested in biology but not in the mass media. Techniques, equipment and insights started with the Human Genome Project, plus the ability to see and model ever tinier structures, have led t...more

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Jan 15, 2011 Harry Rutherford rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

The ten ‘inventions’ are: The origin of life, DNA, photosynthesis, the complex cell, sex, movement, sight, hot blood, consciousness and death. Lane explains how each of these work and how they evolved, at least as far as current knowledge can take us — which in some cases, like the origin of life, is apparently rather further than I had realised. The consciousness chapter, if you’re wondering, was rather less persuasive.

What sets this book apart from most popular accounts of evolution is that Ni...more

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Feb 02, 2013 Alison Dellit rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, evolution

This book isn't the easiest read, particularly if you, like me, have no background in chemistry and scarcely remember cellular biology. Lane explains each new concept/word as it is introduced, but also introduces them rapid fire, so keeping each in your head in increasingly dense sentences becomes difficult. No doubt had I found the analogies useful, this would have been off-set, but unusually (based on other reviews) I found them often not quite exact enough to be useful, and sometimes off-base...more This book isn't the easiest read, particularly if you, like me, have no background in chemistry and scarcely remember cellular biology. Lane explains each new concept/word as it is introduced, but also introduces them rapid fire, so keeping each in your head in increasingly dense sentences becomes difficult. No doubt had I found the analogies useful, this would have been off-set, but unusually (based on other reviews) I found them often not quite exact enough to be useful, and sometimes off-base entirely (I'm still struggling with his use of "illegal alien" at a point I'm pretty certain he just meant "alien" for example).

These factors were compounded by my own state of ill-health and high medication at the time of reading. Combined, unusually and frustratingly, I ended up accepting that some of the details were escaping me as I read through. And I suspect I will come back to this one, but after reading some more introductory primers on bacteria, cellular structure and DNA.

So why did I give a book I had trouble following 4 stars? Firstly, because with some effort, I did grasp the basic point of each section, and was able to explain it to my long-suffering (and more scientifically educated) partner. And this was far more a discussion about the motor force of life than other evolution books I have read. I feel much much more competent now to understand not just the theoretical basis of how an eye could evolve, but how it may have done so in actual practice. Lane's topics were fascinating, each in each, and while all may not have been well-named, each drastically broadened my understanding of the complexity of life, and the interconnectedness of things.

It certainly is refreshing to read a book which takes you through evolution, without feeling the need to point out the wrongness of creationism. There is no need - the intricacy with which millions of pieces of evidence only fit together with an understanding of evolution does that. And when Lane finally gives at the end his plea for a scientific approach, he has earned the grandeur he assigns to a natural history of our earth.

I just wish there had been better analogies, and maybe a few diagrams :)(less)

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Sep 29, 2011 Henry de Malmanche rated it 5 of 5 stars

Fascinating read. A remarkable synthesis of multiple lines of evidence providing plausible explanations for nature's greatest achievements in evolution. Very engaging, packed with metaphors and allusions and I did enjoy Lane's sense of humour. Might be a bit heavy going without some exposure to modern biology, but perfect for me. The chapter on the origin of life was very interesting indeed. Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in science. I've also read Nick Lane's Power, Sex, Suicide ...more

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Nov 17, 2010 John rated it 5 of 5 stars

I could read clear writing 4 eva! I actually think that reading popular science prose effects my brain, all-be-it temporarily. For a while after I feel precise and lucid. I see things as components; bread, peanut butter, jam.
Unfortunately, the information contained therein is also fleeting. I found this out to my dismay when I was starting to explain some fascinating discoveries from this book about genes to Theo, and found I couldn't string a coherent sentence together. I lacked the active voca...more

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Jan 17, 2011 Nathan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fact

I don't envy authors who choose to write about biology. Of all the sciences, it lacks the rules and models that make chemistry and physics so enticing. In those subjects, we have the dance of planets generated from the simple inverse square law of gravity, the solved mystery of wave-particle duality, the puzzle pieces of have-electrons need-electrons chemical bonds. But in all those cases, we know what's going on and why--there are rules, there's a reason goddamnit.

And then there's biology. Biol...more I don't envy authors who choose to write about biology. Of all the sciences, it lacks the rules and models that make chemistry and physics so enticing. In those subjects, we have the dance of planets generated from the simple inverse square law of gravity, the solved mystery of wave-particle duality, the puzzle pieces of have-electrons need-electrons chemical bonds. But in all those cases, we know what's going on and why--there are rules, there's a reason goddamnit.

And then there's biology. Biology, where evolution's blind watchmaker has given us a system that no designer worth their salt would turn in, where available chemicals have multiple functions, where we still can't agree just what a gene is. Biology is short on rules, compared to the other sciences.

This makes writing about biology an unenviable task. If you describe what we do know, it's easy to end up reciting lots of seemingly arbitrary facts without the context that helps us assemble them into a consistent narrative. In the early days of natural history, wiry obsessive English gentlemen collected tray after tray of sample: insect, mollusc, leaf, reptile, mammal, nothing was safe. The dry recitation of facts about molecular pathways ends up like these sample collections: lots of detail, but no story about how they all fit together and why.

That's why Nick Lane deserves his medals. He's managed to bring this world of proteins, amino acids, DNA, cell innards, and chemical signals to life in a story that somehow stretches from the DNA to sex and hot blooded dinosaurs all the way to consciousness and death. My personal favourite:

Shrink yourself down to the size of, say, an ATP molecule, and the cell is a vast cityscape of the future. Stretching as far as you can see in all directions is a giddying array of cables, buttressed with yet more cables. Some look flimsy and thin, while others are of great diameter. In this metropolis of the cell, gravity means nothing, viscosity is everything, and the random jiggling of atoms is all about. Try to move and you will find yourself stuck as if in treacle, yet at once buffeted and jogged from all sides. And suddenly, through this dizzying city comes a peculiar machine, moving at startling speed, hand-over-mechanical-hand, using one of the cables for a track. Attached to this hurtling machine through an unwieldy coupling device is a truly vast object, towed along at speed. If you were in the way, it would be like being hit by a flying power station. Indeed, this is just what it is—it's a mitochondrion, on its way to power the major works over on the other side of the city. And now that you look, various other objects are all heading in the same direction, some faster, some slower, but all towed along the tracks in the sky by similar machines. And whoomp! As the mitochondrion passes, you are caught up in the slipstream, whirled along in the vortex. You are part of the constant circulation that stirs the contents of all complex cells, the cytoplasmic stream.

I can't think of the cell in the same way again, and that is surely the mark of great writing. His metaphors are vivid, often unexpected, and perfectly crafted to spotlight the essential elements of the thing being discussed. The only thing I could say is that there are too many: you can dress biology's details in the cloth of metaphor but there are only so many well-dressed details a man can take before his mind leaks. This is definitely a book to read again and again to absorb those stories, but I am not sure that I will.

I hesitate because of the other trap that lies in wait for people who write about such an unsettled field as biology: they either describe things we don't have answers for, or they are forced to deal with the explanation that is no explanation—the hypothesis. And that's where Lane's book didn't measure up for me. Lane is a practising biology and isn't shy about taking sides in the debate.

On the one hand, taking sides gives us the "state of play" of an emerging field and the arguments taking place within it. That's what science is: the cut and thrust of alternative hypotheses which over time are displaced or accepted. But biology is awash in unanswered questions and Lane was forced to deal with multiple open questions in each chapter. Often he was clear about taking sides ("I think this is the kind of theory we should be looking for to explain the origin of life's code"), but the sheer force of his good writing means the reader isn't left thinking "this is but one of many competing hypotheses". Lane presents one hypothesis in vivid detail and that's what the reader is left remembering.

I was nervous, reading this, that I wasn't building an accurate map of biological reality and history. I was worried that I was instead acquiring a set of stories of possibility, and that I would later be forced to unlearn them. That's fine for scientists, but this layperson struggled to build a conceptual framework for biology and I'm not confident I can change it that easily!

Over the course of this review, I've changed my mind. I will reread this book, though I will (gasp!) mark up my copy of the book, in an attempt to clearly mark out the hypotheses from the agreed explanations. I will try to fit into my head more of the wonderfully visual stories of how DNA, cells, and so on work. It is most fitting that this book about the living world is written in living, active, restless prose. It is mostly to delight in this writing that I will reread "Life Ascending", to delight and to envy.(less)

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Apr 05, 2012 Neumyke rated it 5 of 5 stars

I had already read Power, Sex and Suicide by this author, so I had an idea about how this book was going to read. Life Ascending didn't disappoint me since it included details about the myriads of form, and function behind the complexities of evolution's milestones. It is plainly spoken, with multifaceted views on the subject of evolution, scientific research, and wit. I couldn't help but share parts of this book with my friends and family and being able to clearly re-explain all the exciting th...more

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Oct 30, 2012 Priscilla rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

For quality, this actually deserves 5 stars, but as much as I enjoyed "Life Ascending" (the subject, the writing, etc), it's not a book I'm going to read again and again, which is kind of my requisite for being a "loved it" book. This is definitely in my top list of best-written science books by scientists - Lane has the education, knowledge, and experience in his field (he's an evolutionary biologist at University College London) to know what the hell he's talking about and make strong cases fo...more

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Feb 14, 2012 David rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is, perhaps, the most interesting and informative non-fiction book I've read in many years. Nick Lane's style is conversant and engaging, and he continually brings out information on the subject of biochemistry that will totally captivate you. Only occasionally does he slip into the scientific jargon that fills so many pages of similar books. This is not a book that tries to prove or justify the theory of evolution. Instead, it's a straightforward and very comprehensive summarization of rec...more

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Feb 17, 2011 Lucas Miller rated it 4 of 5 stars

The most technical of the many science/biology books I've read to date--not for those who hated biology class.

It was particularly good on the theories origins of life/DNA, photosynthesis, and eukaryotic cells. Not so great on consciousness (I think it's hard to make a case that that is one of the greatest "inventions" of evolution from the overall picture of life) and death (really a chapter about how we can avoid the degenerations/infirmations of old age--SPOILER: eat less).

I thought I had, a...more

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Jan 07, 2010 Carl rated it 4 of 5 stars

Overall, I enjoyed reading this book.
I've read a number of recent "evolution for layperson" books lately, and it seems that recent advances in understanding come largely from the one end of the spectrum (DNA/molecular biology) or the other (paleontology/gross structure), although Shubin's Your Inner Fish neatly combines both. Biochemist Lane adds some emphasis on chemistry, which he thoroughly understands, but which can sometimes be a bit difficult to follow when your last college course was alm...more

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Jun 08, 2011 Austin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science

Life Ascending is the author's interpretation of the ten most world-changing advances in living creatures. He starts with the origins of life - which he speculates was in volcanic vents under the ocean - and proceeds on to the evolution of consciousness in humans. Along the way he touches on mobility, warm-bloodedness and vision. The author is a biochemist and the book - particularly early on - is a bit dense for pleasure reading. Luckily I started it on a plane, which forced me to get to page 1...more

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Jan 30, 2013 Gyan Bhanot rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is a wonderful book, even better than the other book by Nick Lane, which was called "Power, Sex and Suicide", which was about the role that mitochondria played in the history of eukaryotic cells.

Even those of you who are new to biology (or hate reading non-fiction) will be fascinated by the way the author presents the absolute latest views on the origin of life, RNA world and its evolution into our DNA world, photosynthesis, the emergence of complexity, sex, vision, warm-bloodedness and co...more

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Sep 24, 2009 Todd Martin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: environment-science

In “Life Ascending” Nick Lane discusses in what his opinion are the ten most important developments in evolutionary history. They are:
1. The origin of life.
2. DNA
3. Photosynthesis
4. The complex cell
5. Sex
6. Movement
7. Sight
8. Hot blood
9. Consciousness
10. Death
In each section Lane discusses what we know about the topic, then moves into more speculative and cutting edge research. He does a good job explaining the basics, but does not provide enough information to carry the reader through the end...more

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Dec 28, 2012 Alyssa rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

I initially bought this for a Zoology class that was basically a glorified, quarter-long book report, but wasn't terribly interested in it and changed to Matt Ridley's "Genome" instead. After picking up the chapter on the development of eyes this summer I was hooked and read the whole book within a few days. It was interesting and well written. Clear enough for a layperson, but wasn't so boiled down that I was bored. Buried within it are many interesting tidbits to store away and bring out when...more

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Jul 18, 2011 Carol Ryan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Nick Lane has taken on, among other things, the origin and evolution of all life on earth, in his book Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution.

I have to admit I set myself a goal of reading the book because the rest of my family: my dad and two brothers had already read it. I haven’t opened a book about the physical sciences in years and I began to wonder why. In researching the book before I bought it, I discovered reviewers loved it. But, there was something else that bothered me...more Nick Lane has taken on, among other things, the origin and evolution of all life on earth, in his book Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution.

I have to admit I set myself a goal of reading the book because the rest of my family: my dad and two brothers had already read it. I haven’t opened a book about the physical sciences in years and I began to wonder why. In researching the book before I bought it, I discovered reviewers loved it. But, there was something else that bothered me. All the reviews I saw were written by men. Was my reluctance to delve into a science book gender related?

I read a lot, and I even subscribed to Scientific American a few years ago. But, while I’ve been willing to read science articles lately, a whole book seemed daunting.

I admit that it was slow going at times. Lane begins the book with ‘The Origin of Life’ which although it makes sense to start at the beginning, requires a lot of chemistry to explain. It was fascinating but I had to push myself to read it, because of the level of attention required. Other chapters included more about the history of the discoveries and it was far easier reading for someone with a social science background. Lane has a remarkable ability to go seamlessly from very technical explanation of some complex biological process to stories about the personalities involved in a scientific theory. I suspect that there are few readers with that wide a range of expertise who will find the whole book easily comprehensible. But, I think most people will agree with me that the topics covered are fascinating, and that Lane has written a very important book.

I took copious notes, because there were so many profound statements in the book and I want to think about them and maybe share some in this review. But, not being the technical writer Lane is, I decided against trying to include them. If you read the book you will gain a better sense of the history of the earth and life on earth. You’ll learn about the evolution of knowledge about evolution itself, and how science attempts to answer the big questions about life. It’s a wonderful book worthy of your attention.

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Oct 11, 2011 Ian rated it 4 of 5 stars

Really well written and although it deals with some fairly complex - for me - concepts and theories, it all hung together. It is also quite chatty in style with some gossipy bits about the scientists involved in the research.The books chapters worked for me - starts with smallest units of life , the cell and finishes with a chapter on the evolutionary importance of death. Whilst there is a little politics hidden away its not a blatant all out attack on creationists or anyone else and that did ma...more

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Feb 14, 2011 Avi Roy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Nick Lane proves yet again that hardcore scientists (in this case a biochemist) can pen the most sublime/enjoyable text in the world, all this while being both insightful and elucidative. This book is organised as ten "scientific american" cover article length (maybe slightly longer) chapters, all of whom stand on their own, but to receive a cohesive picture of the grandeur (of evolution) one must be read it in series. Each chapter gives a whistle-stop tour about the scientific literature and co...more

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Jan 05, 2012 Jenny Brown rated it 3 of 5 stars

I came to this book after reading Lane's earlier books on Oxygen and Mitochondria, and because this book was largely a simplified rehash of the topics covered in those books--using the exact same examples--I found this book disappointing.

The one bright spot was the chapter on the evolution of vision which elegantly demolished the favorite argument of those who champion so-called Intelligent Design (the euphemism for Biblical Fundamentalism applied to science.)

But if you're considering reading La...more

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Jan 31, 2011 Jason Mills rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Anyone who thinks science is a good thing

Recommended to Jason by: The Royal Society

Shelves: non-fiction, science, nectar-of-the-gods

This is a thrilling book. Lane picks 10 milestones in evolution and explores their biochemistry. These landmarks are: the origin of life, DNA, photosynthesis, the complex cell, sex, movement, sight, hot blood, consciousness and death. He presents the problems, the research, the contending hypotheses and his careful conclusions, all in a depth of detail that flatters the reader's intellect (this reader's anyway!), yet remains eminently comprehensible throughout. The arguments and explanations are...more

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Jan 17, 2013 Brian Powell rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: pop-sci

This is a fun journey through the major achievements of evolution that paved the way for complex, sentient life. Lane is a good writer; he strikes a balance between technical details and prose to create an informative but entertaining account of evolution. Of the "great inventions", my favorites are his discussions of the origins of the complex cell, sex, eyesight, and death (the section on consciousness is regrettable.)

Lane's "inventions" are interesting because they all tend to resist an easy...more This is a fun journey through the major achievements of evolution that paved the way for complex, sentient life. Lane is a good writer; he strikes a balance between technical details and prose to create an informative but entertaining account of evolution. Of the "great inventions", my favorites are his discussions of the origins of the complex cell, sex, eyesight, and death (the section on consciousness is regrettable.)

Lane's "inventions" are interesting because they all tend to resist an easy explanation; for example, "why have sex when asexual reproduction is so much easier? Why did hot blood and high metabolism evolve when cold blood and low metabolism are so much easier to maintain?" My favorite discussions in the book include: the origin of the nucleus (proposed as a means of giving the cell more time to remove damaging DNA before translation), the reason bacteria are so small (the selection pressure to replicate quickly compels bacteria to jettison all but a minimal genome) , the origin of mitochondria and chloroplasts (as primordial bacterial tenents), the idea that the eye evolved from photosynthetic algae, that birds are modern-day dinosaurs (and how we know this), why dinosaurs grew so large (possibly something to do with the 10-fold increase in CO2 levels relative to today), and the whole notion of programmed cell death (and why it's necessary to keep individual cells "in line" for the good of the collective).

An important theme that I drew from this book is the need for achieving balance; throughout complex systems we find antagonistic forces that must be kept in delicate equipoise in order for life processes to succeed: The rate of genomic mutations can't be too fast or too slow, lest the organism rapidly mutate itself into a local minimum of the fitness landscape, or perish from protracted indolence; Multicellular life demands that cells have a well-tuned sense of when to commit suicide -- too readily and the organism degenerates from within, too reservedly and you get cancerous, unstoppable growth. Evolution resulting from persistent, gradual selection is the blind process by which these forces are balanced.

Since Lane takes on some of the greatest challenges in contemporary evolutionary biology, not all of his proposals are well-tested, nor do they necessarily align with conventional opinion. Lane is generally careful to delineate the more speculative ideas from those more supported, but some do slip through (the sudden rise of atmospheric oxygen as an explanation for the Cambrian explosion is one such hypothesis.) That said, Nick Lane is an actual scientist, and he is generous and careful with references. All in all, it's a celebration of the ingenuity of nature, of the inventiveness of the unguided, blind, and trodding process of Darwinian evolution.
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Mar 12, 2012 Gendou rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: biology, non-fiction

I had a lot of fun reading this book up until the end, when I started to worry about the author's propensity towards exaggeration and speculation.
For anyone who wants to learn about cutting edge speculation on the origin of life, Eukaryotas, and sex, it's definitely worth a read!
Anyone allergic to new-age nonsense sociology, just skip the last 9th chapter.
Everyone should take the last chapter with a very large grain of salt, because it's full of speculation, overblown claims, and other lies.

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Dec 30, 2010 Courtney Johnston rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: big-ideas-made-accessible, extraordinary, own, science

How do I love this book? Let me count the ways ...

I love Nick Lane's tone, which manages to balance wit and clarity without overusing the analogy button:

Thermodynamics is one of those words best avoided in a book with any pretence to be popular, but it's more engaging if it's seen for what it is: the science of 'desire'. The existence of atoms and molecules is dominated by 'attractions', 'repulsions', 'wants' and 'discharges', to the point that it becomes virtually impossible to write about chem

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