Reviews

• One of the deepest, most illuminating books about the history of life to have been published in recent years.
  — Economist
• A strikingly unconventional view of biology… Dr. Lane’s broad perspective, which attempts to address the origins of life, sex and death, is seductive and often convincing.
  — Tim Requarth, NEW YORK TIMES
• He is an original researcher and thinker and a passionate and stylish populariser. His theories are ingenious, breathtaking in scope, and challenging in every sense ... intellectually what Lane is proposing, if correct, will be as important as the Copernican revolution.
  — Peter Forbes GUARDIAN
• "A bold, eloquent, confident book… Nick Lane is not only a master storyteller, but this is his research… he’s that rare species, a scientist who can illuminate the bewildering complexities of biology with clear, luminous words"
  — Adam Rutherford, OBSERVER
• Comes triumphantly close to cracking the secret of why life is the way it is, to a depth that would boggle any ancient philosopher's mind.
  — Matt Ridley TIMES
• Nick Lane is emerging as one of the most imaginative thinkers about the evolution of life on Earth... A scintillating synthesis of a new theory of life.
  — Clive Cookson FINANCIAL TIMES
• Succeeds brilliantly… I cannot recommend The Vital Question too highly. Lane's vivid descriptions and powerful reasoning will amaze and grip the reader.
  — Caspar Henderson TELEGRAPH
• This is a book of vast scope and ambition, brimming with bold and important ideas... The arguments are powerful and persuasive... an incredible, epic story.
  — Michael Le Page NEW SCIENTIST
• An exciting tale, thrillingly told... This is a potent book, one that not only brings you up to date with biology but also stuns you with the wonder of it all.
  — Bryan Appleyard, SUNDAY TIMES
• A tour de force of inventive science.
  — Philip Ball PROSPECT
• "The Vital Question” is a stunning inquiry into the origin of life. I loved this book. This Biology Book Blew Me Away
  — Bill Gates
• Nick Lane works to uncover what has constrained the evolution of life on Earth and what this could mean in terms of understanding how we got here, as well as how life may potentially evolve elsewhere in th
  — Chemistry World
• Nick Lane presents an eloquent, compelling argument that draws on cutting edge research from biochemistry, cell biology and genetics, and approaches the question of the origin of life from a very different perspective: energy.
  — The Times Higher Education
• His question is not one for a static answer but rather one for a series of ever sharper explanations—explanations that apply at different resolutions to specific increments in the continuous chain of life, to the whole, and to generalizations of the proce
  — Phys.org