Biography
Nick Lane is a British evolutionary biochemist and science writer, Professor of Evolutionary Biochemistry at University College London and Director of the UCL Centre for Life's Origins and Evolution. His work investigates how energy flows have shaped the history of life, from its origins to the emergence of cellular complexity and traits such as sex, ageing and consciousness.
His research focuses on bioenergetics, mitochondria, major evolutionary transitions and the chemical conditions that may have enabled life to originate. He has argued for the importance of electrochemical gradients and energetic constraints in understanding the emergence of complex cells, bringing together biochemistry, evolutionary biology and questions about the organisation of living systems.
His books include Oxygen (2002), Power, Sex, Suicide (2005), Life Ascending (2009), The Vital Question (2015) and Transformer: The Deep Chemistry of Life and Death (2022). Among other distinctions, he received the Royal Society Prize for Science Books in 2010 and the Faraday Prize in 2016. His books present evolution as a history profoundly shaped by the transformation of energy.
Profiles and references
Published books