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(44 reviews)
Author: Nick Lane
ISBN : 0198607830
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In Oxygen, Nick Lane takes the reader on an enthralling journey as he unravels the unexpected ways in which oxygen spurred the evolution of life and death. He shows how oxygen underpins the origin of biological complexity, the birth of photosynthesis, the sudden evolution of animals, the need for two sexes, the accelerated aging of cloned animals like Dolly the sheep, and the surprisingly long lives of bats and birds. Drawing on this grand evolutionary canvas, Oxygen offers fresh perspectives on our own lives and deaths, explaining modern killer diseases, why we age, and what we can do about it. Advancing revelatory new ideas, following chains of evidence, the book ranges through many disciplines, from environmental sciences to molecular medicine. The result is a captivating vision of contemporary science and a humane synthesis of our place in nature. This remarkable book will redefine the way we think about the world.
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- Series: Popular Science
- Paperback: 384 pages
- Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (March 26, 2004)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0198607830
- ISBN-13: 978-0198607830
- Product Dimensions: 0.8 x 5.2 x 7.6 inches
- Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
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Nick Lane's book, Oxygen The Molecule that made the World, is a surprising volume. It mixes organic and inorganic chemistry with evolutionary studies, paleontology, research medicine, and even a little engineering to explain how the world got to be as it is. The first half of the book is dedicated to what our early atmosphere was like and how it changed as a result of biological activity. It also discusses how the evolving atmosphere, particularly the presence of oxygen, affected the complexity of early life and the sudden flourish of biological diversity after the Precambrian. The last half of the volume deals with the recent research on free radicals and their effect on health and on the phenomena of aging and of immortality.
Doctor Lane's own background is in biochemistry, and his research focus has been on oxygen free radicals and metabolic function in organ transplants. Not surprisingly he went into some detail about the free radical cascade that affects cellular metabolism and DNA integrity. I found this somewhat difficult to understand as I have only a very rudimentary grounding in organic chemistry. Still I have to admit that I know somewhat more about the process than I did before reading this book.
Probably because I know significantly more about geology and paleontology, I enjoyed more fully the author's synthesis and analysis of what we know of the geological and biological development of our atmosphere and our planet.
In school, we learned of the ubiquity of hydrogen in the universe. It made up the stars, drifted between the galaxies, and, combined with nitrogen, composed the atmosphere of our solar system's giant planets, Jupiter and Saturn. We learned, too, how it combined with oxygen to make our planet's blessing - water. Oxygen was deemed the life-giver, earning our respect even when we burned things with it in the lab. That "burning" is a key element in Lane's treatise. We're all aware that without oxygen, we cannot live. On the other hand, too much of this vital element attacks our cells and contributes to the ageing process. Consequently, we've turned to "anti-oxidants" in hope of diminishing the negative aspects. Lane issues a strong cautionary note about this practice, using a strong evolutionary base to build his case.
Science has long known that the early Earth had little free oxygen in the atmosphere. The famous Urey-Miller experiments used a "reducing" atmospheric environment to build their compounds. Traditional biology argues that oxygen was emitted by photosynthetic bacteria as a waste product. Existing life thus had to adapt to this poisonous atmosphere. Lane challenges this view, describing mechanisms that made early organisms already oxygen tolerant. He contends that the Last Universal Common Ancestor, a minute organism residing in shallow seas, learned to break water into its component gases, using freed energy. In striking a balance between using oxygen as an energy source and preventing that energy from consuming the cell, life developed finely honed processes. Oxygen is more than just used by life, it is constrained and controlled carefully in organic mechanisms. As life gained in complexity it used oxygen to improve those control processes.