Why is life the way it is? Bacteria evolved into complex life just once in four billion years of life on earth - and all complex life s hares many strange properties, from sex to ageing and death. If life evolved on other planets, would it be the same or completely different?

In The Vital Question, Nick Lane radically reframes evolutionary history, putting forward a cogent solution to conundrums that have troubled scientists for decades. The answer, he argues, lies in energy: how all life on Earth lives off a voltage with the strength of a bolt of lightning. In unravelling these scientific enigmas, making sense of life's quirks, Lane's explanation provides a solution to life's vital questions: why are we as we are, and why are we here at all?

This is ground-breaking science in an accessible form, in the tradition of Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species, Richard Dawkins' The Selfish Gene, and Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel.

为什么生命是这样的？

地球上单细胞的生物进化到复杂的生命，在四亿年的历史长河里，仅此一次而已——而且所有的生命都有一些共同的奇怪的特性，比如说性、老化、死亡。如果在其他星球上，也存在着生命的进化，它们会不会与此相同呢，亦或是它们跟我们完全不一样。

在《至关重要的问题》这 本书中，作者尼克•莱恩从根本上重组了人类进化的历史，在书中回答了几十年来一直困扰无数科学家们的难题。

而他所给出的答案就是“能量”：所有地球上的生物都依靠着电能，而这电能就来自于闪电的力量。把科学上的谜题一一解开，我们就理解了生命的这些特性。尼克•莱恩的解释回答了关于生命的这一至关重要的问题：我们为什么如此？我们为什么会在这儿？

同类作品参考：《自私的基因》，《枪炮、病菌与钢铁》

Nick Lane is a biochemist and writer. He is Reader in Evolutionary Biochemistry in the Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environmen t at University College London. His research focuses on the role of bioenergetics in the origin of life and the evolution of cells. Nick was awarded the first UCL Provost's Venture Research Prize in 2009 and will receive the 2015 Biochemical Society Award. He has published three critically acclaimed books, which have been translated into 20 languages. The latest, Life Ascending, won the 2010 Royal Society Prize for Science Books. His books have been shortlisted for two other literary prizes and named a book of the year by the Economist, the Independent, the Times, the Sunday Times and New Scientist. He was described by Nobel Laureate Frank Wilczek as "a writer who is not afraid to think big - and think hard." For more information, visit www.nick-lane.net

尼克•莱恩（Nick Lane）曾就读于伦敦大学帝国理工学院的生物化学专业。他还是伦敦大学大学学院的荣誉大学读者。他也曾担任过位于伦敦的医学多媒体公司Adelphi Medi Cine的策略指导。他在国际期刊上发表过多篇论文，其中包括《新科学家》、《英国医学杂志》等。2 003年牛津大学出版社出版了他的著作《氧气》。2005年该社又出版了他的著作《力量、性及自杀》，该书获得了“安万特奖”的提名，他被认为是年轻一代的学术带头人。同时，该书也是2005年经济学人最畅销的书籍之一。目前，他与他的妻子阿纳居住在伦敦。