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.

為什麼生命是這樣的？

地球上單細胞的生物進化到復雜的生命，在四億年的曆史長河裏，僅此一次而已——而且所有的生命都有一些共同的奇怪的特性，比如說性、老化、死亡。如果在其他星球上，也存在著生命的進化，它們會不會與此相同呢，亦或是它們跟我們完全不一樣。

在《至關重要的問題》這 本書中，作者尼剋•萊恩從根本上重組瞭人類進化的曆史，在書中迴答瞭幾十年來一直睏擾無數科學傢們的難題。

而他所給齣的答案就是“能量”：所有地球上的生物都依靠著電能，而這電能就來自於閃電的力量。把科學上的謎題一一解開，我們就理解瞭生命的這些特性。尼剋•萊恩的解釋迴答瞭關於生命的這一至關重要的問題：我們為什麼如此？我們為什麼會在這兒？

同類作品參考：《自私的基因》，《槍炮、病菌與鋼鐵》

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

尼剋•萊恩（Nick Lane）曾就讀於倫敦大學帝國理工學院的生物化學專業。他還是倫敦大學大學學院的榮譽大學讀者。他也曾擔任過位於倫敦的醫學多媒體公司Adelphi Medi Cine的策略指導。他在國際期刊上發錶過多篇論文，其中包括《新科學傢》、《英國醫學雜誌》等。2 003年牛津大學齣版社齣版瞭他的著作《氧氣》。2005年該社又齣版瞭他的著作《力量、性及自殺》，該書獲得瞭“安萬特奬”的提名，他被認為是年輕一代的學術帶頭人。同時，該書也是2005年經濟學人最暢銷的書籍之一。目前，他與他的妻子阿納居住在倫敦。