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For those unfamiliar with Nick Lane - his books are really good reads even if you're not familiar with the subject matter. Easy to approach, witty, and wry.

I just finished 2005's "Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life", which sets the foundations for some of the thesis in this article while trying to identify just how mitochondria got wrapped up with eukaryotes.

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I started reading that ebook a few years ago, and struggled to feel engaged -- but the frequent recommendations for Nick Lane's work on HN prompted me to revisit, and I'm really glad I did. I'm about 90% of the way through the audiobook of his penultimate work, The Vital Question, from 2015, and it's been thoroughly enjoyable.

I should revisit some of his earlier works, but I get the feeling some of the questions about gaps in knowledge & research in those books would be covered off and answered in his later works. (I could be totally off the mark there, however.)

You can watch his presentations at the Royal Institute.

How the Krebs cycle powers life and death - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBiIDwBOqQA

Why is Life the Way it Is? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLcWfecmZhE

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