Oxygen: The Molecule that Made the World (Popular Science)

In Oxygen, Nick Lane takes the reader on an enthralling journey as he unravels the unexpected ways in which oxygen spurred the evolution of life and death. He shows how oxygen underpins the origin of biological complexity, the birth of photosynthesis, the sudden evolution of animals, the need for two sexes, the accelerated aging of cloned animals like Dolly the sheep, and the surprisingly long lives of bats and birds. Drawing on this grand evolutionary canvas, Oxygen offers fresh perspectives on our own lives and deaths, explaining modern killer diseases, why we age, and what we can do about it. Advancing revelatory new ideas, following chains of evidence, the book ranges through many disciplines, from environmental sciences to molecular medicine. The result is a captivating vision of contemporary science and a humane synthesis of our place in nature. This remarkable book will redefine the way we think about the world.

• The Vital Question: Energy, Evolution, and the Origins of Complex Life
• Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the meaning of life (Oxford Landmark Science)
• Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution
• Hag-Seed: William Shakespeare's The Tempest Retold: A Novel (Hogarth Shakespeare)
• Life on the Edge: The Coming of Age of Quantum Biology
• Mitochondria and the Future of Medicine: The Key to Understanding Disease, Chronic Illness, Aging, and Life Itself
• The Story of Earth: The First 4.5 Billion Years, from Stardust to Living Planet
• Timefulness: How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Help Save the World
• The Tempest (The Pelican Shakespeare)
• The Vital Question: Energy, Evolution, and the Origins of Complex Life