Oxygen is the engine of life and evolution. This book explores the impact that oxygen has had on Earth, tracing the history of life from the very beginning. It explains the rise of animals and plants, the origin of the two sexes, and the evolution of ageing and death. Above all, it aims to offer a fresh perspective on our own lives, explaining why we age and what we can do about it.
Contents: Introduction - Elixir of Life - and Death; In the Beginning there was no Oxygen - The Origins and Importance of Oxygen; Silence of the Aeons - Three Billion Years of Microbial Evolution; Fuse to the Cambrian Explosion - Snowball Earth, Environmental Change and the First Animals; The Bolsover Dragonfly - Oxygen and the Rise of the Giants; Treachery in the Air - Oxygen Poisoning and X-Irradiation - A Mechanism in Common; Green Planet - Radiation and the Beginnings of Photosynthesis; Looking for LUCA - Last Ancestor in the Age Before Oxygen; Portrait of a Paradox - Vitamin C and the Many Faces of an Antioxidant; The Antioxidant Machine: A Hundred and One Ways of Living with Oxygen; Sex and the Art of Bodily Maintenance - Trade-offs in the Evolution of Ageing; Eat! Or You´ll Live Forever - The Triangle of Food, Sex, and Longevity Gender Bender! The Rate of Living and the Need for Sexes; Beyond Genes and Destiny - The Double Agent Theory of Ageing and Disease Life, Death and Oxygen - Lessons From Evolution on the Future of Ageing.