Why is life the way it is? Bacteria evolved into complex life just once in four
billion years of life on earth-and all complex life shares many strange properti
es, from sex to ageing and death. If life evolved on other planets, would it be
the same or completely different? In The Vital Question, Nick Lane radically ref
rames evolutionary history, putting forward a cogent solution to conundrums that
have troubled scientists for decades. The answer, he argues, lies in energy: ho
w all life on Earth lives off a voltage with the strength of a bolt of lightning
.
In unravelling these scientific enigmas, making sense of life's quirks, Lan
e's explanation provides a solution to life's vital questions: why are we as we
are, and why are we here at all? This is ground-breaking science in an accessibl
e form, in the tradition of Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species, Richard Dawk
ins' The Selfish Gene, and Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel.
