
Oxygen
The molecule that made the world
$31.00
- Paperback
400 pages
- Release Date
19 April 2016
Summary
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. 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 dino…
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780198784937 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 0198784937 |
| Author: | Nick Lane |
| Publisher: | Oxford University Press |
| Imprint: | Oxford University Press |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Number of Pages: | 400 |
| Release Date: | 19 April 2016 |
| Weight: | 293g |
| Dimensions: | 23mm x 131mm x 195mm |
| Series: | Oxford Landmark Science |

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Critics Review
’… popular science writing at its very best - clear yet challenging, speculative yet rigorous. The book is a tour de force which orchestrates a seamless story out of both venerable ideas and very recent discoveries in several disparate fields.’ – Bernard Dixon. . . a breathtaking, broad vision of the role of a single gas in our life, from the origin of organisms, through the emergence of creatures, and to their deaths . . . packed full of interesting life-and-death stories...A wonderful read.' -- Peter Atkins… one of the most thought-provoking books I have ever read.’ – John EmsleyNick Lane's chapters are dispatches from the frontiers of research into Earth and life history, but they contain nothing that will lose the patient reader and much that will reward.' -- The Guardian Reviewa brisk revelatory study’ – Christopher Hirst, The Independent`… Nick Lane marshals an impressive array of evidence - [an] ambitious narrative … This is science writing at its best.’ – Jerome Burne, The Financial Times
Nick Lane
Dr. Nick Lane is a British biochemist and writer. He is a Reader in Evolutionary Biochemistry at University College London, where he was awarded the first Provost’s Venture Research Prize in the Department of Genetics, Evolution, and Environment. Dr. Lane’s research focuses on evolutionary biochemistry and bioenergetics, with an emphasis on the origin of life and the evolution of complex cells.
He was a founding member of the UCL Consortium for Mitochondrial Research and leads the UCL Research Frontiers Origins of Life programme. Dr. Lane received the 2011 BMC Research Award for Genetics, Genomics, Bioinformatics and Evolution, and the 2015 Biochemical Society Award for his significant and varied contributions to the molecular life sciences and public understanding of science.
His published works include:
- Oxygen: The Molecule that Made the World (2002)
- Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life (2005)
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