Transformer

A stone-cold classic -- Adam Rutherford
One of the most creative of today's biologists ... this is a book filled with big ideas, many of which are bold instances of lateral thinking * New Scientist *
Bold ... passionate ... a dramatically revisionist account [of the] origins of life * New Yorker *
A thrilling tour of the remarkable stories behind the discoveries of some of life's key metabolic pathways and mechanisms. He lays bare the human side of science ... The book brings to life the chemistry that brings us to life ... masterful * Science *
Deeply researched and cogently written * Nature *
Remarkable * New Humanist *
Transformer is a complex yet accessible, illuminating, and thrilling exploration of the vitality and elemental mysteries of our existence * Booklist *
The story in Transformer is not just lively and engaging but filled with stimulating ideas about life's origins and evolution, about what regulates health and disease, and about the fundamental nature of life itself * Nautilus *
Biochemist Nick Lane is one of our boldest thinkers and a key researcher into the origin and deep history of life. -- Peter Forbes * Prospect *
[An] indefatigable exploration of the genesis of biology . . . [Lane] beautifully lays out the sheer improbability of our biosphere, explains why life may be exceedingly rare in our universe, and considers death as a process, not simply as an instantaneous end * The Atlantic *
Groundbreaking ... [opens] a new chapter in biology that turns our assumptions upside down. * New Humanist *
Nick Lane challenges us to see life differently ... probably the best book on biology I've ever read -- Brian Clegg * Popular Science *
A thrilling journey... the book is a tour de force. -- Laura Eme and Courtney W. Stairs * Nature Ecology & Evolution *
In this compulsively readable book, Lane takes us on a riveting journey, ranging from the flow of energy to new ways of understanding cancer. Lane provides a luminous understanding of how scientists, including Lane himself, are rethinking energy and living organisms. -- Siddhartha Mukherjee, author * The Emperor of All Maladies, The Gene: An Intimate History *
Nick Lane's exploration of the building blocks that underlie life's big fundamental questions - the origin of life itself, aging, and disease - have shaped my thinking since I first came across his work. He is one of my favourite science writers -- Bill Gates
Hugely important ... a powerfully persuasive case for life being about energy flow, flux and change. In Transformer, chemistry is quite literally brought to life -- Jim Al-Khalili, author * The World According To Physics *
Amazing! Takes science writing to a new level ... with soaring prose but uncompromising on scientific detail, Transformer made me think about life on earth in a completely different way. -- Daniel M. Davis, author * The Secret Body *
Hugely ambitious and tremendously exciting ... Transformer shows how a molecular dance from the dawn of time still sculpts our lives today. I read with rapt attention. -- Olivia Judson, evolutionary biologist and author
A thrilling and highly persuasive account of what makes life and how the miracle started, coaxed not by genes but a remarkable cycle of energy and matter - a chemical cycle able to conjure the material of life from the elements of a rocky blue planet. This hugely important book is set to become a landmark, transforming our understanding of how life works. Lane's infectious enthusiasm had me gripped on a tour down the aeons and deep into the inner workings of our cells, to discover the chemistry that gives me the sentience for such fundamental self-knowledge. Marvellous -- Gaia Vince, author * Nomad Century, Adventures in the Anthropocene *
Nobody explains the inner secrets of the living cell better than Nick Lane. He clarifies the complexities of the chemistry that drives all life in a most engaging way. The stories of how this hidden world was revealed by remarkable scientists is explored as a series of riveting detective stories, leaving the reader with admiration for the ingenuity and sheer persistence of those who unscrambled the reactions that underlie all life. -- Richard Fortey FRS FRSL, author * Fossils: The Key to the Past *
An exhilarating account of the biophysics of life, stretching from the first stirrings of living matter to the psychology of consciousness. I felt as if I was there, every step of the way -- Mark Solms, author * The Hidden Spring: A Journey to the Source of Consciousness *
Nick Lane never writes about the living world without offering entirely new perspectives on how life itself works. Transformer is no exception. His subject here - the Krebs cycle - is often seen as one of the driest staples of biochemical textbooks. But in Lane's hands, it becomes a key to life's origins and driving forces, to health, disease and ageing, and even to our awareness of the world. Biochemistry has never looked more exciting. -- Phillip Ball
Nick Lane's marvellously engaging Transformer refocused my astronomer's gaze on the vital chemistry of life on our own planet. Both a scientific adventure story and an original quest to understand life on Earth, Transformer also guides us on how to find life beyond -- John Grunsfeld, former NASA Chief Scientist and Astronaut
One of my favourite writers on biology, science, and life -- Lex Fridman
I loved every page of Nick Lane's new book -- Lee Smolin, author * Einstein’s Unfinished Revolution *
In this fascinating book, Nick Lane brings together biology, chemistry, and physics to illuminate the role of energy in bringing matter alive -- Sean Carroll, author * Something Deeply Hidden: Quantum Worlds and the Emergence of Spacetime *
A whirl­wind tour of the Krebs cycle and its long­stand­ing sway over our planet's biotic processes ... Read­ing about fam­iliar bio­chem­ical pro­cesses through such a dis­tinc­tive and person­able voice was a nov­elty to me, and I found even the foot­notes fun to read * American Society of Microbiology *
The writing in the book is so articulate and the unfolding narrative so ambitious that one is carried along helter-skelter * South African Journal of Science *
Provides compelling narratives on how seemingly unrelated research, such as studies on the origins of life, can lead to breakthroughs in areas like cancer therapy. Riveting * Nature Reviews in Chemistry *