Power, Sex, Suicide Mitochondria and the meaning of life

Nick Lane, Professor of Evolutionary Biochemistry, University College London

Nick Lane is a British biochemist and writer. He was awarded the first Provost's Venture Research Prize in the Department of Genetics, Evolution, and Environment at University College London, where he is now Professor of Evolutionary Biochemistry. Professor Lane's research deals with evolutionary biochemistry and bioenergetics, focusing on the origin of life and the evolution of complex cells. He was a founding member of the UCL Consortium for Mitochondrial Research, and is leading the UCL Research Frontiers Origins of Life programme. He was awarded the 2011 BMC Research Award for Genetics, Genomics, Bioinformatics and Evolution, and the 2015 Biochemical Society Award for his sustained and diverse contribution to the molecular life sciences and the public understanding of science. His books include Oxygen: The Molecule that Made the World (OUP, 2002; 2016).

Introduction: Mitochondria: Clandestine Rulers of the World
Part 1: Hopeful Monster: The Origin of the Eukaryotic Cell
1. The Deepest Evolutionary Chasm
2. Quest for a Progenitor
3. The Hydrogen Hypothesis
Part 2: The Vital Force: Proton Power and the Origin of Life
4. The Meaning of Respiration
5. Proton Power
6. The Origin of Life
Part 3: Insider Deal: The Foundations of Complexity
7. Why Bacteria are Simple
8. Why Mitochondria Make Complexity Possible
Part 4: Power Laws: Size and the Ramp of Ascending Complexity
9. The Power Laws of Biology
10. The Warm-Blooded Revolution
Part 5: Murder or Suicide: The Troubled Birth of the Individual
11. Conflict in the Body
12. Foundations of the Individual
Part 6: Battle of the Sexes: Human Pre-History and the Nature of Gender
13. The Asymmetry of Sex
14. What Human Prehistory Says About the Sexes
15. Why There Are Two Sexes
Part 7: Clock of Life: Why Mitochondria Kill us in the End
16. The Mitochondrial Theory of Ageing
17. Demise of the Self-Correcting Machine
18. A Cure for Old Age?
Epilogue
Glossary
Further Reading
Index