Nick Lane

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 way it is, or, for that matter, how life first began. In The Vital Question, award-winning author and biochemist Nick Lane radically reframes evolutionary history, putting forward a solution to conundrums that have puzzled generations of scientists.For two and a half billion years, from the very origins of life, single-celled organisms such as bacteria evolved without changing their basic form. Then, on just one occasion in four billion years, they made the jump to complexity. All complex life, from mushrooms to man, shares puzzling features, such as sex, which are unknown in bacteria. How and why did this radical transformation happen?The answer, Lane argues, lies in energy: all life on Earth lives off a voltage with the strength of a lightning bolt. Building on the pillars of evolutionary theory, Lane’s hypothesis draws on cutting-edge research into the link between energy and cell biology, in order to deliver a compelling account of evolution from the very origins of life to the emergence of multicellular organisms, while offering deep insights into our own lives and deaths.Both rigorous and enchanting, The Vital Question provides a solution to life’s vital question: why are we as we are, and indeed, why are we here at all?

“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 evolution’s history by describing its ten greatest inventions—from sex and warmth to death—resulting in a stunning account of nature’s ingenuity. 20 figures

What brings the Earth to life, and our own lives to an end?For decades, biology has been dominated by the study of genetic information. Information is important, but it is only part of what makes us alive. Our inheritance also includes our living metabolic network, a flame passed from generation to generation, right back to the origin of life. In Transformer, biochemist Nick Lane reveals a scientific renaissance that is hiding in plain sight —how the same simple chemistry gives rise to life and causes our demise.Lane is among the vanguard of researchers asking why the Krebs cycle, the “perfect circle” at the heart of metabolism, remains so elusive more than eighty years after its discovery. Transformer is Lane’s voyage, as a biochemist, to find the inner meaning of the Krebs cycle—and its reverse—why it is still spinning at the heart of life and death today.Lane reveals the beautiful, violent world within our cells, where hydrogen atoms are stripped from the carbon skeletons of food and fed to the ravenous beast of oxygen. Yet this same cycle, spinning in reverse, also created the chemical building blocks that enabled the emergence of life on our planet. Now it does both. How can the same pathway create and destroy? What might our study of the Krebs cycle teach us about the mysteries of aging and the hardest problem of all, consciousness?Transformer unites the story of our planet with the story of our cells—what makes us the way we are, and how it connects us to the origin of life. Enlivened by Lane’s talent for distilling and humanizing complex research, Transformer offers an essential read for anyone fascinated by biology’s great mysteries. Life is at root a chemical phenomenon: this is its deep logic.

Three hundred million years ago, in Carboniferous times, dragonflies grew as big as seagulls, with wingspans of nearly a meter. Researchers claim they could have flown only if the air had contained more oxygen than today - probably as much as 35 percent. Giant spiders, tree ferns, marine rock formations, and fossil charcoals all tell the same story. High oxygen levels may also explain the global firestorm that contributed to the demise of the dinosaurs after the asteroid impact.The strange and profound effects that oxygen has had on the evolution of life pose a riddle that this audiobook sets out to answer. Oxygen is a toxic gas. Divers breathing pure oxygen at depth suffer from convulsions and lung injury. Fruit flies raised at twice the normal atmospheric levels of oxygen live half as long as their siblings. Reactive forms of oxygen, known as free radicals, are thought to cause aging in people. Yet if atmospheric oxygen reached 35 percent in the Carboniferous, why did it promote exuberant growth instead of rapid aging and death?Oxygen takes the listener on an enthralling journey, as gripping as a thriller, as it unravels the unexpected ways in which oxygen spurred the evolution of life and death.

If it weren't for mitochondria, scientists argue, we'd all still be single-celled bacteria. Indeed, these tiny structures inside our cells are important beyond imagining. Without mitochondria, we would have no cell suicide, no sculpting of embryonic shape, no sexes, no menopause, no aging.In this fascinating and thought-provoking book, Nick Lane brings together the latest research in this exciting field to show how our growing insight into mitochondria has shed light on how complex life evolved, why sex arose (why don't we just bud?), and why we age and die. These findings are of fundamental importance, both in understanding life on Earth, but also in controlling our own illnesses, and delaying our degeneration and death. Readers learn that two billion years ago, mitochondria were probably bacteria living independent lives and that their capture within larger cells was a turning point in the evolution of life, enabling the development of complex organisms. Lane describes how mitochondria have their own DNA and that its genes mutate much faster than those in the nucleus. This high mutation rate lies behind our aging and certain congenital diseases. The latest research suggests that mitochondria play a key role in degenerative diseases such as cancer. We also discover that mitochondrial DNA is passed down almost exclusively via the female line. That's why it has been used by some researchers to trace human ancestry daughter-to-mother, to "Mitochondrial Eve," giving us vital information about our evolutionary history.Written by Nick Lane, a rising star in popular science, Power, Sex, Suicide is the first book for general readers on the nature and function of these tiny, yet fascinating structures.

In Oxygen , Nick Lane takes the reader on an enthralling journey as he unravels the unexpected ways in which oxygen spurred the evolution of life and death. He shows how oxygen underpins the origin of biological complexity, the birth of photosynthesis, the sudden evolution of animals, the needfor two sexes, the accelerated aging of cloned animals like Dolly the sheep, and the surprisingly long lives of bats and birds. Drawing on this grand evolutionary canvas, Oxygen offers fresh perspectives on our own lives and deaths, explaining modern killer diseases, why we age, and what we can doabout it. Advancing revelatory new ideas, following chains of evidence, the book ranges through many disciplines, from environmental sciences to molecular medicine. The result is a captivating vision of contemporary science and a humane synthesis of our place in nature. This remarkable book willredefine the way we think about the world.

Mitochondria Bacteria to Humans, the Hidden Ruler of Evolution, is the seventh book in the Rootwiper Oppavinia series. And the contents are listed. Mitochondria are tiny organelles that produce almost all of the energy we use, and its amazing how these small power plants regulate our lives. Mitochondria contain an average of 300 to 400 cells per cell, and the total number of mitochondria is about 1 in total. Scientists argue that without mitochondrial enslavement, we all would have escaped the germ that is now a single-celled organism. In fact, the importance of mitochondria is beyond imagination. Today, mitochondria are at the center of various research fields dealing with prehistoric anthropology, genetic diseases, apoptosis, infertility, aging, bioenergetics, sex and eukaryotic cells. Author Nick Lane looks at the world we live in from the mitochondrial point of view and seeks answers to some of the most important challenges in biology, such as the formation of complexity, the origin of life, sex and fertility, death, and the expectation of eternal life.

Life leapLeap of Life is a story about inventors who changed the history of evolution. It is a book about what we humans learned by understanding how each invention changed the world of life, and how sophisticated devices opposed nature. Innovative research that has emerged over the last few decades provides a vivid insight into lifes questions about where life came from, where DNA came from and why we die.The authors have based on how they have revolutionized the biological world and how they have changed the whole earth, whether their importance is valid today, whether they are direct products of evolution by natural selection, and how symbolic they are. The revolution was drawn. These ten revolutions are called invention and are interpreted from a broad perspective. Therefore, the ten evolutionary revolutions chosen make this book widely available as a biological commentary.The author introduces a variety of hypotheses on the subjects of life, DNA, photosynthesis, and eukaryotic cells. . This story contains phenomenal originality and praise for ourselves. This long story of how we are here now will extend deeply and broadly the range of life that readers have ever recognized, from small germs to giant dinosaurs.

" It is the Valley of Fear, the Valley of Death. The terror is in the hearts of the people from the dusk to the dawn" Crammed full of adventure, mystery and of course one or two rather brilliant deductions, The Valley Of Fear is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's thrilling final Sherlock Holmes novel, brought to life in this spectacular new stage adaptation. A mysterious, coded message is received, a warning of imminent danger, drawing Sherlock Holmes and the faithful Dr Watson into a tale of intrigue and murder stretching from 221B Baker Street to an ancient moated manor house to the bleak Pennsylvanian Vermissa Valley. Faced with a trail of bewildering clues, Holmes begins to unearth a darker, wider web of corruption, a secret society and the sinister work of one Professor Moriarty. Following the huge success of Blackeyed Theatre's 2018/19 international tour of The Sign of Four , the great detective is back in another gripping stage adaptation by Nick Lane, combining original live music, stylish theatricality and magical story-telling for an unforgettable theatrical experience. The game is afoot!

I am no bird; and no net ensnares I am a free human being with an independent will"" A gothic masterpiece of tempestuous passions and dark secrets, Jane Eyre tells the thrilling story of an orphan girl and her journey from a childhood of loneliness and cruelty to a life at Thornfield Hall and an unlikely relationship with the mysterious Mr Rochester. Falling in love, she gradually uncovers a hidden past to the gloomy, forbidding Thornfield Hall, a terrible secret that forces her to make a heart-wrenching choice. Don't miss Blackeyed Theatre's brand new stage adaptation of one of the greatest works of English fiction. Captivating, brooding and intensely powerful, Jane Eyre is a moving and unforgettable portrayal of one woman's quest for equality and freedom, and lives as one of the great triumphs of storytelling.

Résumé de l'ouvrageDave, jeune homme sensible de vingt-trois ans, est amoureux de sa colocataire Sarah… depuis presque 10 ans ! Lorsque celle-ci lui annonce qu’elle part faire un doctorat à New-York, Dave réalise qu’il doit lui annoncer son amour ou la perdre à jamais. Incapable de le lui dire simplement, il planifie de lui offrir des « vacances surprises » pour lui déclarer son amour. Afin de pouvoir lui payer ce voyage, Dave prend un petit boulot d’été dans la construction, où il fait la connaissance de Melvin, un jeune homme… très direct ! La rencontre entre les deux jeunes hommes est un choc culturel ! Et ce n’est que le début, car Melvin est bien décidé à éduquer Dave sur les façons de faire dans ce monde…Biographie de l'auteurNick Lane est un metteur en scène et dramaturge anglais. Parmi ses pièces originales : Me and My Dad, My Favourite Summer, Blue Cross Xmas, The Derby McQueen Affair et Housebound. Il a aussi adapté des romans pour le théâtre : Frankenstein, L’amant de Lady Chatterley, Moby Dick (en partenariat avec John Godber) et 1984. Il a écrit et mis en scène de nombreuses pièces originales et adaptations pour le jeune public, notamment ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas, Pinocchio, A Christmas Carol et Hansel and Gretel. Il vit à Doncaster, soutient le club de football des Doncaster Rovers et aime les nouilles bien plus qu’il ne devrait. Peut-être.

"When you have one of the first brains of Europe up against you, and all the powers of darkness at his back, there are infinite possibilities"London, 1901. As the British Empire wages war in the name of a Queen whose health is failing, a series of mysterious events reveals a crack in the high corridors of power. A crack that threatens to destabilise monarchy, government and Empire. And at its centre, controlling the flow of information and influence, a shadowy figure plans a final deadly move.Drawn into the game and unsure who to trust, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson find themselves confronting figures from their past in a desperate race against time, aware that the most powerful person in the world could be in the pocket of one of the most corrupt. But just how much is Holmes willing to sacrifice as he faces 'checkmate'?A new play by Nick Lane and produced by Blackeyed Theatre as a major national tour, Sherlock The Hunt for Moriarty interweaves a selection of Conan Doyle's short stories - The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans, A Scandal in Bohemia, The Adventure of the Second Stain and The Final Problem - into a new, pulsating Sherlock Holmes adventure. The game is afoot!