Author: Nick Lane Publisher: ISBN: 9781781250372 Category : Cells Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
A game-changing book on the origins of life, called the most important scientific discovery 'since the Copernican revolution' in The Observer.
Author: Nick Lane Publisher: OUP Oxford ISBN: 9780191513015 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 370
Book Description
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 have their own DNA, with their own small collection of genes, separate from those in the cell nucleus. It is thought that they were once bacteria living independent lives. Their enslavement within the larger cell was a turning point in the evolution of life, enabling the development of complex organisms and, closely related, the origin of two sexes. Unlike the DNA in the nucleus, mitochondrial DNA is passed down exclusively (or 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'. Mitochondria give us important information about our evolutionary history. And that's not all. Mitochondrial genes mutate much faster than those in the nucleus because of the free radicals produced in their energy-generating role. This high mutation rate lies behind our ageing and certain congenital diseases. The latest research suggests that mitochondria play a key role in degenerative diseases such as cancer, through their involvement in precipitating cell suicide. Mitochondria, then, are pivotal in power, sex, and suicide. In this fascinating and thought-provoking book, Nick Lane brings together the latest research findings in this exciting field to show how our growing understanding of mitochondria is shedding light on how complex life evolved, why sex arose (why don't we just bud?), and why we age and die. This understanding is of fundamental importance, both in understanding how we and all other complex life came to be, but also in order to be able to control our own illnesses, and delay our degeneration and death. 'An extraordinary account of groundbreaking modern science... The book abounds with interesting and important ideas.' Mark Ridley, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford
Author: Nick Lane Publisher: Profile Books ISBN: 1847652220 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 353
Book Description
Winner of the 2010 Royal Society Prize for science books Powerful new research methods are providing fresh and vivid insights into the makeup of life. Comparing gene sequences, examining the atomic structure of proteins and looking into the geochemistry of rocks have all helped to explain creation and evolution in more detail than ever before. Nick Lane uses the full extent of this new knowledge to describe the ten greatest inventions of life, based on their historical impact, role in living organisms today and relevance to current controversies. DNA, sex, sight and consciousnesses are just four examples. Lane also explains how these findings have come about, and the extent to which they can be relied upon. The result is a gripping and lucid account of the ingenuity of nature, and a book which is essential reading for anyone who has ever questioned the science behind the glories of everyday life.
Author: Nick Lane Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company ISBN: 0393651495 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 275
Book Description
From the renowned biochemist and author of The Vital Question, an illuminating inquiry into the Krebs cycle and the origins of life. “Nick Lane’s exploration of the building blocks that underlie life’s big fundamental questions—the origin of life itself, aging, and disease—have shaped my thinking since I first came across his work. He is one of my favorite science writers.”—Bill Gates 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.
Author: Philip Stott Publisher: Reformation Media & Press ISBN: 9780972135429 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 172
Book Description
"Vital Questions" examines issues which have enormous influence in shaping the attitudes of our society and the way we think and look at life. Most of us have assumed for years that there must be overwhelming proof for such well established ideas as the Big bang, Relativity, and Evolution. On closer investigation one finds that the evidence is astonishingly flimsy. A number of theories taken as indisputable, from primary school to university, are examined and found to be in serious doubt.
Author: David Emerald Publisher: ISBN: 9780996871839 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 226
Book Description
Finalist, 2019 Indie Book Awards, Careers Category Transform Workplace Drama into Workforce Empowerment! If you have ever experienced infighting, such as a team or a department pitting itself against another team or department; if you have ever worked for a micromanaging and overbearing boss; if you have ever navigated the changes that come with a merger or other significant restructuring process, then you have had a front-row seat for organizational drama. 3 Vital Questions is a teaching story about transforming workplace drama and its heavy costs to organizations. Working late at night, Lucas, a middle manager in a large organization, meets a custodian named Ted. The two strike up a friendship as Ted teaches Lucas three vital questions with the power to transform the disillusionment he is experiencing at work. Readers follow Lucas as he learns how to shift from feeling like a Victim to acting as a Creator in his career. With the wise guidance of Ted and Kasey, a senior manager, Lucas applies the three vital questions and begins transforming his workplace relationships, with exciting results. At home, Lucas and his wife Sarah discover how the questions can spark creative collaboration with each other and their two young children. This long-awaited and highly enjoyable read by the author of the bestselling self-leadership title, The Power of TED* (*The Empowerment Dynamic) ushers in a new era of possibility for the world of work. This book teaches David Emerald's groundbreaking 3 Vital Questions(R) approach for empowering leaders and teams to become collaborative, engaged, and resilient in the face of the rapid changes that mark today's increasingly complex competitive environment.
Author: Peter M. Hoffmann Publisher: ISBN: 0465022537 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 290
Book Description
Life, Hoffman argues, emerges from the random motions of atoms filtered through the sophisticated structures of our evolved machinery. People are essentially giant assemblies of interacting nanoscale machines.
Author: Christopher M. Raymond Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 1108856926 Category : Nature Languages : en Pages : 501
Book Description
Global challenges ranging from climate change and ecological regime shifts to refugee crises and post-national territorial claims are rapidly moving ecosystem thresholds and altering the social fabric of societies worldwide. This book addresses the vital question of how to navigate the contested forces of stability and change in a world shaped by multiple interconnected global challenges. It proposes that senses of place is a vital concept for supporting individual and social processes for navigating these contested forces and encourages scholars to rethink how to theorise and conceptualise changes in senses of place in the face of global challenges. It also makes the case that our concepts of sense of place need to be revisited, given that our experiences of place are changing. This book is essential reading for those seeking a new understanding of the multiple and shifting experiences of place.
Author: Eric Smith Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 1107121884 Category : Nature Languages : en Pages : 703
Book Description
Uniting the foundations of physics and biology, this groundbreaking multidisciplinary and integrative book explores life as a planetary process.
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Author: Nick Lane
Author: Nick Lane
Author: Nick Lane
Author: Nick Lane
Author: Nick Lane
Author: Philip Stott
Author: David Emerald
Author: Peter M. Hoffmann
Author: Christopher M. Raymond
Author: Eric Smith