Oxygen: The Molecule that Made the World
by Nick Lane
Our Price: $160.50
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $12.49 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Nick LaneEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2003-04-24
ISBN: 0198508034
Number of pages: 384
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Book Reviews of Oxygen: The Molecule that Made the World
Book Review: A lot of information about a lot of different topics!
Summary: 5 Stars
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. Some of this material was familiar to me from other sources: Certainly that O2 can actually be a "poison" I know from managing patients with ARDS (adult respiratory distress syndrome) on mechanical ventilators with 100% O2; that the earth went through a series of green house earth/snowball earth phases early in its history I had learned from Ward and Brownlee's book Rare Earth; that life had begun almost as early as it was able and much earlier than had been previously believed, I was aware of from works by Gould, Schopf, and others; and that the mitochondria may once have been free-living, aerobic organisms that formed a symbiotic relationship with anaerobic organisms was known to me from my past exposure to microbiology in a nursing class.
New to me however, was the concept that gigantism may have been a means of limiting the negative effects of a periodic increase in oxygen in the environment, as Dr. Lane suggests in his chapter on The Bolsover Dragonfly. Although I had read an article that suggested that the immense sizes achieved by some of the dinosaur species might have been due to a higher percent of O2 at the time, I had also understood that it was because oxygen was a "good" thing, an opportunity of sorts. Lane points out that the negative effects of oxygen on tissues and DNA through the free radical cascade might have been ameliorated by an increased size. An animal--or one presumes also a plant--that increased its size might have been able to distribute negative effects over a greater body mass. One wonders if the rise of the mammalian mega fauna of the ice ages and their sudden almost catastrophic disappearance might not also have been due to some temporary fluxuation in the oxygen level of their atmosphere. (In which case the early Native Americans could be once and for all exonerated of having liquidated them, since their demise would have been dictated by a return to a baseline oxygen level!) If this were the case, one might also question what type of changes might be expected among our own kind as a result of such an increase and decrease of atmospheric oxygen.
I found the doctor's ideas on the trade off between sexual reproduction and immortality a unique approach to the topic of aging. Some of this information--the studies of animal reproduction rates, predation, and age at death, for instance--was known to me. Dr. Lane's discussion brought it together in a much more complete way.
Certainly the concept of sexual reproduction being one of life's mechanisms of perpetuating the fragile, complex organic molecules (DNA) in an oxidative environment was interesting. I had read Ridley's proposal that sexual reproduction evolved as a means of resisting bacterial infection, but Lane's suggests why it began as early as the DNA swapping behavior among early single eukaryotic cells. That the massive increase in biological diversity was an indirect product of the release of oxygen into the atmosphere, is truly an amazing thought. In the event as Lane makes claim in his subtitle, oxygen was truly "The Molecule that made the World."
Summary of Oxygen: The Molecule that Made the World
Three hundred million years ago, dragonflies grew as big as seagulls, with wingspans nearly a yard across. Researchers claim they could have flown only if the air had contained more oxygen than today-probably as much as 35 per cent. But oxygen is a toxic gas. Fruit flies raised at twice the normal level of oxygen live half as long as their siblings. If atmospheric oxygen reached 35 per cent in the Carboniferous, why did oxygen promote exuberant growth, instead of rapid aging and death?This is just one of the puzzles Nick Lane answers in Oxygen. Lane takes the reader on an enthralling journey, as gripping as a thriller, as he unravels the unexpected ways in which oxygen spurred the evolution of life and death. The book explains far more than the size of ancient insects: it 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.
Biological Sciences Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Biological Sciences Books
Living with Darwin: Evolution, Design, and the Future of Faith (Philosophy in Action)by Philip Kitcher
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2007-01-05; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $7.40
Price in other shops:
The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biologyby Ray Kurzweil
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2006-09-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.88
Price in other shops:
Nutritional Biochemistry (Food Science and Technology)by Author Unknown, Tom Brody
Academic Press; Published: 1994-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $39.57
Price in other shops:
Signal Transductionby Bastien D. Gomperts, Ijsbrand M. Kramer, Peter E.R. Tatham
Academic Press; Published: 2002-04-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $20.00
Price in other shops:
A Primate's Memoir: Love, Death and Baboons in East Africaby Robert M. Sapolsky
Vintage Books; Published: 2002-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.50
Price in other shops:
Genetics: From Genes to Genomes with PowerWeb(OLC Bindin Card)by Leland Hartwell, Leroy Hood, Michael L. Goldberg, Lee M. Silver, Ruth C. Veres, Ann Reynolds
McGraw-Hill Science/Engineering/Math; Published: 2003-03-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $17.95
Biology Laboratory Manualby Darrell Vodopich, Randy Moore
McGraw-Hill Science/Engineering/Math; Published: 2007-02-05; Spiral-bound; Book
Best price: $60.00
Winter World: The Ingenuity of Animal Survivalby Bernd Heinrich
Harper Perennial; Published: 2004-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.98
Price in other shops:
Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dogby John Grogan
HarperAudio; Published: 2005-10-18; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $5.25
Price in other shops:
Beautiful Jim Key: The Lost History of the World's Smartest Horseby Mim E. Rivas
William Morrow Paperbacks; Published: 2006-04-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.99
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Bodyby Neil Shubin
Pantheon; Published: 2008-01-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $7.49
Price in other shops:
Evolution's Witness: How Eyes Evolvedby Ivan R Schwab
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2011-11-21; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $80.82
The Information: A History, a Theory, a Floodby James Gleick
Pantheon; Published: 2011-03-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $17.00
Price in other shops:
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancerby Siddhartha Mukherjee
Scribner; Published: 2010-11-16; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $15.16
Price in other shops:
The Emerald Planet: How Plants Changed Earth's Historyby David Beerling
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2007-04-05; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $23.50
Price in other shops:
Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Lifeby Nick Lane
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2005-12-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $76.00
Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolutionby Nick Lane
W. W. Norton & Company; Published: 2009-06-22; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $16.97
Price in other shops:
The Wild Life of Our Bodies: Predators, Parasites, and Partners That Shape Who We Are Todayby Rob Dunn
Harper; Published: 2011-06-21; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.45
Price in other shops:
The Machinery of Lifeby David S. Goodsell
Springer; Published: 2009-04-28; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $15.00
Price in other shops:
Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Lifeby Nick Lane
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2006-12-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.90
Price in other shops: