The Vital Question: Energy, Evolution, and the Origins of Complex Life - Softcover

[Nick Lane] proves an able guide through treacherous scientific terrain. He writes in lucid, accessible prose, and while the science may get dense, the reader will be rewarded with a strikingly unconventional view of biology.--Tim Requarth

A scintillating synthesis of a new theory of life.--Clive Cookson

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.--Peter Forbes

A book of vast scope and ambition, brimming with bold and important ideas.... The arguments are powerful and persuasive...an incredible, epic story.--Michael Le Page

In this, his third book about energy and life, [Lane] 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.--Matt Ridley

If I were a rich man, I would buy up the print run of this book and give a copy to every science undergraduate ahead of his or her first course in cell biology.--Franklin Harold

An amazing inquiry into the origins of life.--Bill Gates

An award-winning author and biochemist, building on the pillars of evolutionary theory and drawing on cutting-edge research into the link between energy and genes, argues that evolution of multicellular life was the result of a single event.