Table of Contents

IntroductionMitochondria: Clandestine Rulers of the World
Part 1Hopeful Monster: The Origin of the Eukaryotic Cell
1: The Deepest Evolutionary Chasm
2: Quest for a Progenitor
3: The Hydrogen Hypothesis
Part 2The Vital Force: Proton Power and the Origin of Life
4: The Meaning of Respiration
5: Proton Power
6: The Origin of Life
Part 3Insider Deal: The Foundations of Complexity
7: Why Bacteria are Simple
8: Why Mitochondria Make Complexity Possible
Part 4Power Laws: Size and the Ramp of Ascending Complexity
9: The Power Laws of Biology
10: The Warm-Blooded Revolution
Part 5Murder or Suicide: The Troubled Birth of the Individual
11: Conflict in the Body
12: Foundations of the Individual
Part 6Battle of the Sexes: Human Pre-History and the Nature of Gender
13: The Asymmetry of Sex
14: What Human Prehistory Says About the Sexes
15: Why There Are Two Sexes
Part 7Clock of Life: Why Mitochondria Kill us in the End
16: The Mitochondrial Theory of Ageing
17: Demise of the Self-Correcting Machine
18: A Cure for Old Age?
Epilogue
Glossary
Further Reading

About the Author

Dr Nick Lane is Honorary Reader at University College London and formerly strategic director at Adelphi Medi Cine, a medical multimedia company based in London. His first book, Oxygen: the Molecule that made the World, was published to critical acclaim by Oxford University Press in 2002. He is co-editor of the academic text Life in the Frozen State, and his articles have been published in numerous international scientific journals, including
Scientific American, New Scientist, The Lancet and the British Medical Journal. Nick Lane has also spent many years clinging to rock faces in search of fossils and thrills, but his practical interest in palaeontology is
rarely rewarded with more than a devil's toenail.

Reviews

Challenging, but rewarding. Vanessa Thorpe, Observer Its the most interesting and significant addendum to Darwin's theory I think I've come across since Richard Dawkins explained how genes are the mechanism for evolution. Independent on Sunday, An enthralling account...The author has accomplished something quite breathtaking... Moreover, he brings the science alive...he is always accessible lively , thought provoking and informative. Every Biologist should read this book