Nick Lane - Transformer: The Deep Chemistry of Life and Death

Praise forTransformer

Nick Lanes exploration of the building blocks that underlie lifes big fundamental questions the origin of life itself, ageing and disease have shaped my thinking since I first came across his work. He is one of my favourite science writers.

Bill Gates

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 of The Gene: An Intimate History

Thrilling and highly persuasive This hugely important book is set to become a landmark, transforming our understanding of how life works.

Gaia Vince, author of Nomad Century

I loved every page of Nick Lanes new book. Its one of the very best books on the origin of life Ive read.

Lee Smolin, author of Einsteins Unfinished Revolution

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 of The World According to Physics

Amazing! Takes science writing to a new level with soaring prose but uncompromising on scientific detail, Transformermade me think about life on earth in a completely different way.

Daniel M. Davis, author of The Secret Body

Hugely ambitious and tremendously exciting Transformershows how a molecular dance from the dawn of time still sculpts our lives today. I read with rapt attention.

Olivia Judson, author of Dr Tatianas Sex Advice to All Creation

Nobody explains the inner secrets of the living cell better than Nick Lane a series of riveting detective stories.

Richard Fortey, author of Trilobite!

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 of The Hidden Spring

Nick Lanes marvellously engaging Transformerrefocused my astronomers 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

Fascinating Nick Lane brings together biology, chemistry and physics to illuminate the role of energy in bringing matter alive.

Sean Carroll, author of Something Deeply Hidden: Quantum Worlds and the Emergence of Spacetime

Nick Lane never writes about the living world without offering entirely new perspectives on how life itself works Biochemistry has never looked more exciting.

Philip Ball, author of Critical Mass

The deep chemistry of life and death

NICK LANE

First published in Great Britain in 2022 by

Profile Books Ltd

29 Cloth Fair

London

EC1A 7JQ

www.profilebooks.com

Copyright Nick Lane, 2022

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The right of Nick Lane to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book.