Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution

Nick Lane

Profile Books, 2010 - Science - 344 pages

Lane expertly reconstructs the history of life by describing the ten greatest inventions of evolution based on their historical impact, role in organisms today, and relevance to current controversies.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - MarkBeronte - LibraryThing

Where does DNA come from? What is consciousness? How did the eye evolve? Drawing on a treasure trove of new scientific knowledge, Nick Lane expertly reconstructs evolution’s history by describing its ...

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - Rozella - LibraryThing

I am very impressed with this book. Nick Lane has taken what he calls "ten great inventions of evolution" and given some well argued narratives of how it all happened. Shows some of the interesting ...

Contents

• Introduction: 1
• The Origin of Life: 8
• DNA: 34
• Photosynthesis: 60
• The Complex Cell: 88
• Sex: 118
• Movement: 144
• Sight: 172
• Hot Blood: 205
• Consciousness: 232
• Death: 260
• Epilogue: 286
• List of Illustrations: 307
• Bibliography: 313
• Index: 327

About the author

Nick Lane studied biochemistry at Imperial College, London and is an honorary reader at University College, London. His first book, Oxygen, was one of the Sunday Times Books of the Year in 2002. His last book, Power, Sex, Suicide was named as a book of the year in The Economist in 2005 and was short-listed for The Aventis Science Book Prize and the Times Higher Young Academic of the Year Award in 2006.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution
• Author: Nick Lane
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Profile Books, 2010
• ISBN: 1861978189, 9781861978189
• Length: 344 pages
• Subjects: Science / Life Sciences / Evolution