Life Ascending

The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution

By: Nick Lane

Narrated by: Graeme Malcolm

Length: 13 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

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 10 greatest inventions - from sex and warmth to death - resulting in a stunning account of nature's ingenuity.

©2010 Nick Lane (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

• Royal Society Prize for Science Books, 2010

"Original and awe-inspiring . . . an exhilarating tour of some of the most profound and important ideas in biology." (New Scientist)

“For about 150 years, we have known how species evolve. The emergency of life itself remains more obscure. But as Lane shows with clarity and vigor in Life Ascending, fascinating studies on the subject abound.” ( The New York Times Book Review)

“In this wonderful book….Lane does a masterful job of explaining the science….” ( Publishers Weekly)

Captivating

Great depth, wonderful explanation, I quite enjoyed the descriptor level, historical guidance, character sketches, and scientific defense.

technical but enlightening

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, at last, a science book that doesn't try to persuade us that evolution is true but, alas, in the final chapter the author made his pitch. It was a powerful one, though, so I'll excuse it.

Definitely moments where I started to drift off but, overall, this is a good read for those who love biology.

excellent

Any additional comments?

Lane provides an excellent and enjoyable narrative. It contains interesting and informative facts on evolution and genes in an easily understood manner.

Excellent treatment of life's drivers

Lane does a great job organizing and discussing important events in life's history. If you love biology, then you will find this to be a great synthesis of big ideas.

Absolutely Amazing

I loved this book. After nearly 2 decades of Physics being my science learning of choice I needed a change. After a particularly interesting Mindscape podcast episode with a physicist turned biologist, biology is what called out to me.

Before this book my only biology knowledge came from HS and a few YouTube videos here and there. I wanted a book that got into the details on a variety of biological topics as a starting off point. And on that this books seriously delivered.

Make no mistake, this book is dense. I had to listen to a chapter or even part of a chapter and then go watch YouTube videos and read articles to better understand what I just learned. But that is what I wanted. Biology is an enormous discipline and having this book gave me various grounding points so I could get started which is exactly what I needed.

I feel in the last month I’ve gone from a total biology noob to a biology novice. I cannot wait to learn more. As soon as I am done with this review I plan on listening to the entire book again, this time armed with considerable more knowledge before but undoubtedly i will find more detail that will send me on many more learning adventures.

As for the narration, once I bumped it to 1.25x speed it was perfect. I swear they slowed it down .25 as nobody talks THAT slow.

Remarkable book!

This is a truly remarkable piece of nonfiction. It is beautifully written, very well researched,and extremely well narrated. A truly fascinating read from start to finish.

An Extraordinary Experience !

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Certainly would recommend this to friends - and have - especially somewhat brainy friends, curious about the biggest questions - the nature of the universe, how life got started and become what we see around us.

What did you like best about this story?

The depth of explanation and the reasoning behind evolutionary explanations laid out clearly with frank discussion of uncertainties; Lane presents the evidence across all of the scientific disciplines - genomics, paleontology, numerous areas of biology and mathematical modelling - and his book appears not to have been possible much before today, based on the technical advances in genomics and molecular analysis. Apart from being a noted scientist in the area, Lane must have broad cultural interests to inject into his style much humor and stylistic commentary that provides entertaining respites from places where he has found it appropriate to do a deep dive (from the layman's perspective) to get to the heart of the science on a matter.

Have you listened to any of Graeme Malcolm’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No, This is a very good one.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Stranger and more exciting than any Sci-Fi.

Any additional comments?

Those familiar with the Drake Equation - that which derives the probability of extra-terrestrial development of intelligent life from a handful of inputs, may want to revisit their calculations. Life on earth - from its start to where it is today seems a very odd mixture of remarkably fortuitous happenstance (the nature of just one type of sub-sea vent and its related chemistry, e.g.) and near or actual inevitabilities.

A bit dense in places, but utterly fascinating

What did you like best about this story?

Nick Lane offers a brilliant synopsis of the inner workings of evolution. Yes, there are irritants: He often leads you down dead end streets in discussing historical theories in some detail, only to reveal at the end that the theory you were trying to absorb is utterly wrong. And I had to pick up a hard copy of the book to read over a few passages that I could not follow easily in the audio. But the content and overall presentation is breathtaking.

informative and entertaining

i laughed a few times, and learned a lot more about what I thought I already knew about. good read.

Brilliant writing + lapses of impenetrable writing

In its best moments, this book is beautiful and actually quite funny, delivered just right by Graeme Malcolm's wizardly British accent. It felt like hanging out with Newton in his study, listening to him reveal the secrets of the world.

And then, in moments, Lane seems to give up on any pretence of speaking to a wider audience, using terminology few outside of biology will follow. I found it baffling, because elsewhere, he takes such care to explain things in terms anyone could grasp. It's unclear to me whether he truly didn't realize what concepts others wouldn't know, or whether he just got lazy in places. From reading reviews of his other books, this seems to be an ongoing problem he has.

Unfortunately, these moments are most common in the earlier chapters, when he's discussing metabolism, the origin of life and photosynthesis. My advice? Just let the tangled bits glide past you, because there is a TON of fascinating material throughout the book, and the latter chapters offer few hiccups.

I do absolutely recommend this book, despite the caveats. Learning about the origin of life alone was worth the price, and the chapter on eyes is brilliant. The section on consciousness is also a nice speculative bonus.