Nick Lane is a biochemist and writer. He is Professor of Evolutionary Biochemistry at University College London, and the author of Life Ascending, which won the 2010 Royal Society Prize, and The Vital Question, of which Bill Gates wrote 'this biology book blew me away'. His lab is attempting to recreate the chemical conditions that drove the origin of life on Earth.
Praise for Nick Lane: 'He is an original researcher and thinker and a passionate and stylish populariser. His theories are ingenious, breathtaking in scope, and challenging in every sense ... intellectually what Lane is proposing, if correct, will be as important as the Copernican revolution and perhaps, in some ways, even more so -- Peter Forbes * Guardian * An amazing inquiry into the origins of life. I loved it -- Bill Gates One of the deepest, most illuminating books about the history of life to have been published in recent years * Economist * [Nick Lane] is ... one of the most imaginative thinkers about the evolution of life on Earth -- Clive Cookson * Financial Times * The origin of life may forever be a mystery, but not if Nick Lane can help it. His The Vital Question is one of the most astonishing science books I have read * Wall Street Journal *