Nick Lane: 10 books

“One of the deepest, most illuminating books about the history of life to have been published in recent years.” —The Economist The Earth teems with life: in its oceans, forests, skies and cities. Yet there’s a black hole at the heart of biology. We do not know why complex life is the...

Come ha fatto la vita a inventare se stessa? Da dove viene la coscienza? Perché si muore? Da sempre l’uomo alza gli occhi al cielo e cerca risposte: se a metà Ottocento Charles Darwin rivoluzionò il pensiero scientifico con il concetto di selezione naturale, negli ultimi decenni siamo passati...

Wie entstand das Leben? Woher stammt die DNS? Warum sterben wir? In den vergangenen Jahrzehnten haben bahnbrechende Forschungen neue Einsichten in die Enstehung und das Wesen des Lebens geliefert. Aufbauend auf den neuesten wissenschaftlichen Erkenntnissen rekonstruiert der Biochemiker Nick Lane die...

“Original and awe-inspiring . . . an exhilarating tour of some of the most profound and important ideas in biology.”—New Scientist 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...

Mitochondria are tiny structures located inside our cells that carry out the essential task of producing energy for the cell. They are found in all complex living things, and in that sense, they are fundamental for driving complex life on the planet. But there is much more to them than that. Mitochondria...

Warum ist das Leben so, wie es ist? In den letzten vier Milliarden Jahren haben sich einfache Bakterien ein einziges Mal zu höherem Leben entwickelt. Und alle komplexen Lebewesen teilen sich seitdem eine Reihe merkwürdiger Eigenschaften: von Sex über das Altern bis zum Sterben. Aber wenn das Leben...

Oxygen has had extraordinary effects on life. Three hundred million years ago, in Carboniferous times, dragonflies grew as big as seagulls, with wingspans of nearly a metre. Researchers claim they could have flown only if the air had contained more oxygen than today - probably as much as 35 per cent....

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Download the first chapters of FOUR fantastic middle-grade books! This free chapter sampler includes excerpts from Moone Boy: The Blunder Years by Chris O'Dowd and Nick Murphy; From the Notebooks of a Middle School Princess by Meg Cabot; Return to Augie Hobble by Lane Smith; and The Book Scavenger...

Book your ticket now for a trip to the future, the past, and the timeslips in between. Through the eloquent prose and imaginings of eighteen tellers of tales, we are pleased to present to you a collection of stories-on-a-train that will transport you to tantalizing worlds that you simply cannot...