Vital Question: Energy, Evolution, and the Origins of Complex Life

The book covers three inter-related topics: the origin of life, the origin of complex organisms (eukaryotes), and the consequences of having a dual system of inheritance (nuclear and mitochondrial genes) in complex organisms. Lane proposes that the system by which most organisms convert energy to usable biochemicals (especially ATP) provides an important clue about how life originated. Organisms pump hydrogen ions outside of a membrane in a fashion analogous to a pump that pushes water into a water tower. Much as the flow of water out of a tower can be used to power an electric generator, organisms use this hydrogen ion gradient to produce ATP which serves as universal source of energy for cells. Lane argues that deep-sea alkaline hydrothermal vents provided all the conditions necessary for the origin of life. These vents continuously provide hydrogen and carbon dioxide which can be combined to yield energy and organic compounds. These vents also contain metallic compounds, especially iron and sulfur containing compounds, that could serve as catalysts for the chemical reactions needed by the precursors of living organisms. Furthermore, the structures created in these vents contain pores that could serve as nurseries for the precursors of living organisms. Most importantly, boundaries in these pores permit the creation of an electrochemical gradient similar to hydrogen ion gradient that exists in living things. Complex organisms, called eukaryotes, are much larger than bacteria and have multiple structures inside the cell, especially mitochondria and nucleus. This branch of the tree of life includes all multi-cellular organisms such as fungi, plants, and animals. The other two branches of the tree of life, bacteria and archaea, have never produced multi-cellular organisms despite their great versatility with regard to the substances they can consume and environments they can grow in. Lane describes the evidence that eukaryotes arose from a merger (symbiosis) between bacterial and archaeal organisms. He also proposes that this happened just once in Earth's history. This isn't a new theory but Lane extends it by developing hypotheses about the detailed events in this process, such as the origin of the cell nucleus. Complex organisms have DNA in two different places, the cell nucleus and the mitochondria. The final section of Lane's book explains the consequences of this, arguing that certain attributes shared by all eukaryotes, such as senescence, and sex are logical consequences of this arrangement. This is because the actions of ordinary, nuclear, genes must be tightly matched to those of mitochondrial genes for the electrochemical gradients in the mitochondria work optimally. This has substantial consequences for human health. Lane argues, for example, that the high frequency of spontaneous miscarriages in people could be the result of occasional mismatches between nuclear and mitochondrial DNA. Another, equally provocative, example is the role of free radicals in health. He proposes that free radicals produced when mitochondria are not functioning optimally may impair health but that anti-oxidant substances such as vitamin C only make things worse by interfering with normal feedback controls. It is difficult to say who the intended audience is because it isn't either a typical popular science book or an academic treatise. Its style is informal, all terms are carefully explained, and it has many helpful the illustrations. But a sizable fraction of the material is much more challenging than typical popular science books. Many times, I had to slow down and reread sections to make sure I understood the topic at hand. But it isn't an academic work or even a textbook; the kinds of details academic readers want, such as detailed citations, simply aren't there. It would help if you have a general familiarity with college level biology and some chemistry. Having some knowledge of biochemistry might help but it isn't necessary since Lane mostly avoids describing biochemical details. If you can manage to give this book the careful reading it deserves, you will be amply rewarded with a fresh and intriguing view of the topics at hand. Some of this material is covered in an entirely different way in Franklin Harold's "In Search of Cell History." If you like one of these books you will enjoy the other as well. Furthermore, comparing their different viewpoints will allow you to see the issues more clearly.

Lane's unfortunately titled "Power, Sex, and Suicide" was the first book I ever read that (I could understand at all) that tackled head on the most profound mysteries of all of Life on Earth. I felt like that book was mandatory reading by all inquisitive and intelligent people. But I also felt the title, though absolutely true to the text, was likely off-putting to some (not me!) and unfortunate for that reason. The book was about, in essence, mitochondria, for goodness sakes! I was so relieved and encouraged to see the new title (with totally palatable title) come out. It covers much of the same ground as the earlier book(s) but goes forward with new research and new elaborations of his and others' previous theory and data. There are fewer graphics and less detail than the "SPS" book and it leaves out some very interesting observations and speculations of the earlier book but it covers much of the same ground and brings the studies up to date after 10 years. This is fantastically exciting stuff, people! Nick Lane and his ilk are delving into the most profound mysteries of life. For the first time in the history of life, I think, consciousness in the form of the human brain is starting to understand life's and complex life's origins - - beginnings that would seem to have been inscrutable and beyond reach just a few short years ago. You read this book and come to realize "Life is a miracle but a comprehensible miracle. Yeah! It could indeed have happened this way!" Read this book and his others. You will for the first time in your life feel like Humankind is onto something utterly profound and awesome. Of course, why the Universe is the way it is at all will perhaps forever be a mystery unless one just accepts the Multiverse idea of a virtual or literal infinitude of Universe and "ours" simply is the ONE or one of many that happens to "work" to produce life and us. Given such a Universe with the basic components Lane sees as essential for Life Chemistry to start, we now get an idea of how chemical reactions could happen and proceed on a path that ends in membrane-enclosed sacs of chemistry with replication-inducing molecules (RNA/DNA) leading to bacteria and such and then to what may be a unique symbiosis to produce complex life and all that means. Among other things, Lane is trying to create a predictive and testable Origins Story and concludes that simple Life (e.g., bacteria) may be common but that complex Life (eukaryotes onward to us and colleagues) may have happened extremely rarely or, as John Gribbin supposes ("Alone in the Universe"), maybe only once anywhere in our Universe.

This book describes a partial theory of how life initially evolved, followed by a more detailed theory of how eukaryotes evolved. Lane claims the hardest step in evolving complex life was the development of complex eukaryotic cells. Many traits such as eyes and wings evolved multiple times. Yet eukaryotes have many traits which evolved exactly once (including mitochondria, sex, and nuclear membranes). Eukaryotes apparently originated in a single act of an archaeon engulfing a bacterium. The result wasn't very stable, and needed to quickly evolve (i.e. probably within a few million years) a sophisticated nucleus, plus sexual reproduction. Only organisms that go through these steps will be able to evolve a more complex genome than bacteria do. This suggests that complex life is rare outside of earth, although simple life may be common. The book talks a lot about mitochondrial DNA, and make some related claims about aging. Cells have a threshold for apoptosis which responds to the effects of poor mitochondrial DNA, killing weak embryos before they can take up much parental resources. Lane sees evolution making important tradeoffs, with species that have intense energy demands (such as most birds) setting their thresholds high, and more ordinary species (e.g. rats) setting the threshold lower. This tradeoff causes less age-related damage in birds, at the cost of lower fertility. Lane claims that the DNA needs to be close to the mitochondria in order to make quick decisions. I found this confusing until I checked Wikipedia and figured out it probably refers to the CoRR hypothesis. I'm still confused, but at least now I can attribute the confusion to the topic being hard. Aubrey de Grey's criticism of CoRR suggests there's a consensus that CoRR has problems, and the main confusion revolves around the credibility of competing hypotheses. Lane is quite pessimistic about attempts to cure aging. Only a small part of that disagreement with Aubrey can be explained by the modest differences in their scientific hypotheses. Much of the difference seems to come from Lane's focus on doing science, versus Aubrey's focus on engineering. Lane keeps pointing out (correctly) that cells are really complex and finely tuned. Yet Lane is well aware that evolution makes many changes that affect aging in spite of the complexity. I suspect he's too focused on the inadequacy of typical bioengineering to imagine really good engineering. Some less relevant tidbits include: why vibrant plumage in male birds may be due to females being heterogametic why male mammals age faster than females Many of Lane's ideas are controversial, and only weakly supported by the evidence. But given the difficulty of getting good evidence on these topics, that still represents progress. The book is pretty dense, and requires some knowledge of biochemistry. It has many ideas and evidence that were developed since I last looked into this subject. I expect to forget many of those ideas fairly quickly. The book is worth reading if you have enough free time, but understanding these topics does not feel vital.

Biochemistry is in the midst of a golden age of discovery and Nick Lane is at the forefront, winning numerous awards in his contributions to the life sciences. In this work, he has identified the vital unsolved questions in the field of biology and has provided plausible solutions to these mysteries including: the enigma of why life emerged only once on this planet, why no evolutionary intermediaries exist between simple and complex life, and the most vital question of all, how life began. During the earth’s four billion year history, it appears that life emerged only once, just 500 million years after the earth’s formation. Early life consisted of prokaryotes (cells without a nucleus) in the form of bacteria and archaea, a third domain of life discovered by Carl Woese in the 1960s. Over billions of years through extreme environmental and ecological changes, these organisms have filled every conceivable niche on our planet. Photosynthetic bacteria have bioengineered our planet on a colossal scale, creating the oxygen we breathe, changing the chemistry of the atmosphere and oceans, building up continents with sedimentary rock and minerals as their bodies fall to the ocean floor, in short, creating Gaia, our living planet. Yet, after all this time, they have shown little change in form or complexity. Then, seemingly without any intermediate steps, the eukaryotes (cells with a nucleus) sprang into existence giving rise to all plants, animals, and fungi found today. According to the cherished standard model of evolution, evolutionary changes occur incrementally. With this in mind it is hard to understand how complex eukaryotic cells appeared virtually overnight. In 1967, Biologist Lynn Margulis proposed a modification to the standard model of evolution. Her astute analysis of paleontological history revealed that evolution rarely occurs in a Darwinian or Malthusian way in which species battle for limited resources. Instead, she discovered that most evolutionary advances occur as a result of cooperation and symbiotic relationships. Margulis went further when she proposed the radical idea that cells cooperated so closely that they merged by getting inside one another. It is now widely accepted that mitochondria in animals and chloroplasts in plants are the result of endosymbiosis between bacteria and archaea. Author Nick Lane believes that early on in the history of life on earth complex eukaryotic cells arose on just one occasion through a singular endosymbiosis between an archaeon host cell and a bacterial invader creating the precursor of eukaryotic cells. Lane says that this endosymbiotic event might have occurred more than once but those experiments never survived. Over time, all of the complex features of modern eukaryotes including straight chromosomes, a membrane-bound nucleus, mitochondria, specialized organelles, a dynamic cytoskeleton, and total organism replication and reproduction arose by standard Darwinian evolution. Evolutionary theory tells us how life begets life, but it tells us nothing about how life began in the first place. This was the vital question Lane set out to solve. All cells, both eukaryotic and prokaryotic, have one essential commonality involving the method of energy production by burning food in the process of respiration. All living cells power themselves through a process of pumping protons across a membrane creating a reservoir of electrical imbalance. The back-flow of these protons is used by cells to produce physical work such as turning the rotors of nanomachines, just as water through a dam turns a turbine. This process provided Lane a clue in his attempt to find geochemical processes that would mimic biological energy production. If he could discover this mechanism in the natural world, it would go a long way in solving the mystery as to how life emerged from geochemical processes. In this vein, Lane formulated his own recipe for the emergence of biological chemistry from geochemistry—rock, water, and carbon dioxide. These simple ingredients are not only abundant in our atmosphere but are abundant throughout the known universe. But one cannot simply put these ingredients in a bowl and stir. To begin the chain of chemical reactions leading to life, it is necessary for hydrogen gas (H2) and carbon dioxide (CO2) to react with one another to produce one of the simplest organic molecules—methane (C4). This reaction does not occur under normal conditions. In fact, it is very difficult for hydrogen to react with carbon dioxide and this was one of the problems that confronted Lane. All cells derive their energy from reduction/oxidation (redox) reactions in which electrons are transferred from a donor to an accepter molecule. Typically, the accepter is oxygen but any two molecules can perform redox reactions. The molecule that receives electrons is said to be reduced and the molecule that gives up electrons is said to be oxidized. In respiration, or in a fire, where carbon is burned, oxygen is reduced to water, in which oxygen atoms pick up two electrons (as well as two protons that make up the hydrogen atom) producing a final product of water and carbon dioxide. In the case of hydrogen gas (H2), an alkaline, and carbon dioxide (CO2), an acid, it is hydrogen gas that wants to give up its electrons and become oxidized. Carbon dioxide, on the other hand, wants to accept electrons and be reduced. Each has a reduction potential, which is the amount of energy released when the reaction occurs. If a molecule (in this case hydrogen gas) wants to give up electrons, it has a negative value (-414 at a neutral PH) for a reduction potential, and alternatively, a molecule that wants to accept electrons, in this case carbon dioxide, has a positive value. The reduction potential is dependent on the acidity of a solution. High acidity increases the reduction potential of carbon dioxide making it more positive and easier to accept electrons whereas alkaline solution increases the reduction potential of hydrogen gas making it more negative and more likely to give up its electrons. One would think that by changing the acidity of a solution it would be easier for hydrogen gas and carbon dioxide to readily react with each other, but changing the acidity of a solution affects all of the molecules in the solution in the same way, so hydrogen gas (H2) will tend to pass on its electrons to H+ to form CO2 and H2. Nothing is gained and we’re right back where we started. Simply changing the acidity of a solution won’t make it any more likely carbon dioxide and hydrogen gas will react to produce methane. Lane was not deterred, believing that if there really is a continuum between geochemical and biological processes there should be a way to react CO2 with H2 naturally. He turned his thoughts to the ocean depths. Alkaline hydrothermal vents seemed to Lane to be good candidate for the continuum between geochemical and biochemical processes. Alkaline vents are not volcanic, but originate from the sea floor and are a product of a chemical reaction between water and rocks rich in olivine. Olivine is rich in ferrous iron and magnesium and when mixed with water the ferrous iron is oxidized to ferric oxide releasing heat and generating hydrogen gas dissolved in warm alkaline fluids containing magnesium hydroxides. According to Lane, alkaline hydrothermal vents have the perfect physical and chemical environment to kick-start life. Alkaline vents have a microporous structure like a sponge with thin electrically conductive walls separating interconnected pores. Warm currents passing through these micropores concentrate organic molecules such as amino acids, fatty acids, and nucleotides. The interactions between these molecules often precipitate fatty acids into vesicles, the precursors of cell walls, and occasionally they will polymerize amino acids and nucleotides into proteins and RNA. These porous vent structures mimic the biological structures in mitochondria that pump protons across a gradient. But before it is possible to concentrate organic molecules, it is necessary to create them and this was only one of the problems facing Lane: If these alkaline hydrothermal vents create life, then why aren’t they incubating life today? It occurred to Lane that conditions three and one half billion years ago in Hadean times are far different than conditions now. Under today’s conditions, there is not enough carbon to incubate life; however, estimates suggest that CO2 levels were anywhere from one hundred to one thousand times higher in Hadean times making the oceans more acidic. The combination of high carbon dioxide levels, mildly acidic oceans (PH 5-7), and warm alkaline fluids flowing through thin electrically conductive Iron sulfide vent walls would have made them ideally suited to react carbon dioxide with hydrogen gas to form methane (C4) as long as oxygen is not present. Under these conditions with temperatures between 25 and 125 degrees centigrade, the formation of all four of the macromolecules essential for life: amino acids, fatty acids, carbohydrates and nucleotides should form spontaneously from the reaction between hydrogen gas and carbon dioxide releasing energy in the process. Lane had found his geologic “mitochondria” in the form of alkaline vents on the ocean bottom. His hypothesis of a seamless transition between inorganic processes and organic processes was realized. Nick lane’s book The Vital Question is dense but accessible for the lay person who has patience. I think this is one of those landmark books that offer very plausible hypotheses for the vital questions concerning evolution, and the origins of life.

This is one of the more challenging books I have attempted in recent years, but well worth the journey. The vital question Lane asks is how complex life arose from bacteria (prokariotes, more precisely). He makes a very compelling case. His scholarship is exemplary, and he is as engaging a science writer as I have read. The book does not require prior knowledge, per se. However, there is a lot of chemistry, which is mentally taxing for those unfamiliar, like myself. Prior to reading this book, I read Lane's previous book, Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution. This book was also excellent, and provided very helpful background for the new one. Life Ascending is much broader, and surveys the work of many scientists in addressing key evolutionary developments: origins of life, DNA, photosynthesis, complex life, sex, movement, sight, hot blood, consciousness and death. Many of these chapters are directly relevant to Lane's own work as elaborated in The Vital Question. Lane's approach to science writing is to explain not only the development of understanding of difficult problems, but to explain currently conflicting views, revealing science in all its messiness. This gives a picture of the dynamism and excitement of his field. He is also often very funny, in that dry British way. Spoiler Alert! Stop hear if you don't want to hear punchlines. The crux of Lane's thesis in The Vital Question is that complex (Eukariotic) life arose just once in an unusual ingestion (endosymbiosis) of a bacteria by an archeon (another prokariote). The evidence is strong that all complex life originated from this one event, only half a billion years ago, after prokariotes (bacteria and archea) had dominated the earth for three billion years, indicating that this was a pretty unusual event. He explains very persuasively why energetic constraints in prokariotes discourage the evolution of higher complexity. In the new combined form, the ingested bacteria evolved into mitochondria, which provided a powerhouse capable of suppling the extravagant complexity and variation of eukariotic life, and thereby allowing it to evolve. The two books together, have given me a much deeper understanding of the evolution of life, and the remarkable nature of biological machines. Highly recommended for ambitious readers with an intellectual curiosity about how the natural world works and how it got to be.

Turns out I was asking AI all kinds of questions about how life started on the cellular level, so I asked it to recommend a book, and The Vital Question was first on the list. I've only just started it. I was worried that a book by a scientist might be inaccessible to me, but he's a good writer, paints pictures I understand, and is keeping me enthralled. The glossary at the back of the book is helping. My only problem is that I am acquiring a vocabulary that I will be able to read but won't have a clue how to pronounce.

The information in this book is quite fascinating, as the author takes us through the journey of the evolution of prokaryotic cells into the infamous eukaryotes. The only thing is the overall delivery of information is a tad hard to comprehend at times, since the author seems to have his science in place, but lacks the writing experience to get the message across to all and any type of reader. Overall the book is a must for any reader that wants to turn his purely Darwinian view of the world into a mixed evolutionary/energetic spectrum

A fascinating book that explores the origins of life and the origins of complex cells. Lane provides interesting insights into these topics and makes a convincing case. The book is a bit of a challenge and requires a careful read. For the most part, his explanations were clear and the writing was good, but from time to time, he would explain many possible ways something could have happened but then would go on to say why he thought they did not happen this way. I found that this added to the challenge of an already difficult book.

Prerequisites for reading: basic understanding of cell biology and a bit of chemistry. Some familiarity with thermodynamics helps. Things I loved about this book: - Careful chains of reasoning from first principles of physics and thermodynamics, which is rare in biology, supported by numerous real-world examples and ingenious observations, without resorting to blanket pronouncements of truth. Nick Lane seems to be acutely aware of human failings and himself says his theories and ideas may not be correct. - Specific, testable predictions on the basis of the theories. - Frank admittance of mistakes committed, theories proven wrong, and the fact that they will continue to be. Like he says, beautiful theories can get killed by ugly facts. The facts care nothing for our desires. I found myself highlighting several paragraphs every chapter (which I rarely do -- other books in my "copious highlights" category include On Intelligence and Thinking, Fast and Slow) What I didn't like about this book: - Reasoning in every chapter is repeated several times and got somewhat boring towards the end. However this is a minor quibble and often saved me the greater tedium of going back to re-read the material. Sometimes the subtle re-phrasing of an explanation even helped me grasp the logic. - Some unfamiliar technical terms weren't explicitly explained (even though I'd heard the word "germline" I didn't know what it meant -- had to look it up). All considered, this is an excellent popular science book. In my mind it's right up there with The Selfish Gene, albeit it requires more beforehand knowledge. Don't miss it!

There might be areas of improvement as far as the readability and the accessibility are concerned, but the fact of the matter is: I read it twice passionately already and I’m restarting it again to grab what I may have missed before.

One of the best and influential book I have read in my lifespan

The quest to understand the origin of life must be one of the most meaningful endeavors that humanity can embark on. And Nick Lane is the writer that has inspired me most on this path. You DON'T need to be a micro-biologist as some reviewers seem to suggest - a basic high school understanding of organic chemistry will do ... and a willingness to learn of course. This to me is the most inspiring book I've read in years. Nick Lane continuously restates biological concepts, as good teachers tend to do. Nick Lane also has a fantastic prose, making this book easy to read. I bought this on kindle as I like to be able to highlight sections - but soon found myself highlighting half the book, including lesser-used words he weaves in here and there, helping me improving my English grammar as a bonus. This book is a real treasure!

Pop science books are written to be accessible and often contain descriptions of real science. It is very rare, though, for a book accessible to a general reader to also advance an original scientific argument of its own. I can think of The Origin of Species - Charles Darwin, and The Extended Phenotype - Richard Dawkins. There aren't many other examples. But this is one of them. Unlike those other examples, The Vital Question is so close to the cutting edge that scientists are not yet agreed whether it is right or not, though the book makes concrete predictions that will be proved or disproved by experiment. The hypotheses in the book are important, too. They concern two of the most critical points in the evolution of life on Earth: * The first emergence of life some 4 billion years ago - just bacterial or other slime at that time * The first complex (eukaryotic) cells some 2 billion years later, which gave rise to all plants, fungi, and animals In this book, Nick Lane sets out plausible, and testable, hypotheses for how they happened. In both cases, the driver was free energy -- and specifically, a mechanism for delivering it under control via a proton gradient. The first happened soon after Earth settled from the trauma of its birth and that of the moon, so was a likely event, which may well have happened on many other planets. The recipe is simple - rock, water and carbon dioxide, with a thin rock membrane separating acid from alkali. The second happened only after a 2 billion year wait - an unlikely though not impossible event, and again the key is energy -- free energy per gene. Remarkably, the second event is tied to so many of the other things that we know about complex life on our planet: * Sex * Death * Two sexes * The form of a cell, with a nucleus, an internal membrane system, mitochondria Nick Lane gives reasons why he thinks the emergence of complex life necessitates sex, death and two sexes. If we find intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, Lane asserts that it too will have these properties. Moreover, he sets out ways of testing his ideas, ways that do not involve having to find extraterrestrial lifeforms. The book is scientifically rigorous, as far as I can tell. (I am a physicist, not a biologist.) It is readable to a non-specialist audience, though there are some technical terms, explained in a glossary, and you would struggle without some knowledge of school chemistry. And the book is wonderful: an exciting detective story, where we still do not know for sure who done it.