Life Ascending

The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution

By: Nick Lane

Narrated by: Graeme Malcolm

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.

Life Began As a Porous Rock

Nick Lane has become one of my favorite science writers. Graeme Malcolm is a fantastic narrator.

Here's a bit from my favorite passage:

"Life must have evolved a surprising degree of sophistication in its rocky hatchery. This paints an extraordinary portrait of the last common ancestor of all life on earth. If [William] Martin and [Michael] Russell are right, and I think they are, she was not a free living cell, but a rocky labyrinth of mineral cells lined with catalytic walls composed of iron, sulfur, and nickel, and energized by natural proton gradients. The first life was a porous rock that generated complex molecules and energy right up to the formation of proteins and DNA itself."

Too scholarly

In order to appreciate this book a master’s degree or above in microbiology in really necessary

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.

Far reaching consequences

The way single events have impacted our world is explained beautifully by the author. The book was quite technical at times but surely very informative.