korrents
Nick Lane

What Nick Lane thinks about evolutionary biology

@nick-lane · 22 positions · 0 changes of mind

Biochemist at University College London, Professor of Evolutionary Biochemistry and author of The Vital Question and Transformer.

Nick Lane did not write this page.

We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.

9 dated positions, 2022, in their own words. Our reading of what Nick Lane has said — not written or endorsed by them.

  1. Our readingOxygen in the atmosphere makes a fresh origin of life impossible, which is why life cannot be starting over in hydrothermal vents today.

    Their wordsIt’s possible it started multiple occasions. There’s two provisos to that. One of them is oxygen makes it impossible really for life to start. So, as soon as we’ve got oxygen in the atmosphere, then life isn’t going to keep starting over.

    ↗Nick Lane: Origin of Life, Evolution, Aliens, Biology, and Consciousness | Lex Fridman Podcast #318youtube.com 1st of 22 in this recording

  3. Our readingThere is no necessary trajectory from simple life to complexity: without photosynthesis or eukaryotes, the planet could have stayed bacteria and nothing else.

    Their wordsSo, there is no necessary trajectory towards great complexity in human beings at the end of it. It’s very easy to imagine that without photosynthesis arising or without eukaryotes arising, that the planet could be full of bacteria and nothing else.

    ↗Nick Lane: Origin of Life, Evolution, Aliens, Biology, and Consciousness | Lex Fridman Podcast #318youtube.com 4th of 22 in this recording

  5. Our readingRe-run Earth a million times and at least a few hundred thousand of those runs give you bacteria again.

    Their wordsI think at the level of bacteria, not much variety. I think we would get how many times you say you want to run it a million times? I would say at least a few hundred thousand will get bacteria again.

    ↗Nick Lane: Origin of Life, Evolution, Aliens, Biology, and Consciousness | Lex Fridman Podcast #318youtube.com 6th of 22 in this recording

  7. Our readingLife on Mars could share a genetic code close to ours with no transfer between the planets, because the beginnings of life are close to inevitable.

    Their wordsSo, it wouldn’t surprise me any longer if we found life on Mars and it had a genetic code that was not very different to the genetic code that we have here without it just being transferred across, there’s some inevitability about the whole of the beginnings of life, in my view.

    ↗Nick Lane: Origin of Life, Evolution, Aliens, Biology, and Consciousness | Lex Fridman Podcast #318youtube.com 7th of 22 in this recording

  9. Our readingOxygenic photosynthesis was the single greatest pollution event in the whole history of the Earth.

    Their wordsSo you’re using the power of the sun to split water, take out the hydrogen, stick it onto CO2, and the oxygen is a waste product and you just throw it out, throw it away. So it’s the single greatest planetary pollution event in the whole history of the earth.

    ↗Nick Lane: Origin of Life, Evolution, Aliens, Biology, and Consciousness | Lex Fridman Podcast #318youtube.com 8th of 22 in this recording

  11. Our readingThe eukaryotic cell is the single biggest invention in the whole history of life.

    Their wordsI personally think that’s the single biggest invention in the whole history of life.

    ↗Nick Lane: Origin of Life, Evolution, Aliens, Biology, and Consciousness | Lex Fridman Podcast #318youtube.com 9th of 22 in this recording

  13. Our readingPredation is what makes evolution creative: without it there would be no arms races, no great feats of evolution, and a far less beautiful world.

    Their wordsIn some ways, maybe it does do good. I don’t want to make an argument for nuclear arms, but predation as a mechanism forces organisms to adapt, to change, to be better, to escape, or to kill. If you need to eat, then you’ve got to eat. A cheetah is not going to run at that speed unless it has to because the zebra is capable of escaping. So it leads to much greater feats of evolution would ever have been possible without it, and in the end, to a much more beautiful world.

    ↗Nick Lane: Origin of Life, Evolution, Aliens, Biology, and Consciousness | Lex Fridman Podcast #318youtube.com 12th of 22 in this recording

  15. Our readingEvolution only happens because of death.

    Their wordsSurvival of the fittest, if you just go back to that old phrase, means death of the weakest. Now, what’s fit? What’s weak? These are terms that don’t have much intrinsic meaning, but the thing is, evolution only happens because of death.

    ↗Nick Lane: Origin of Life, Evolution, Aliens, Biology, and Consciousness | Lex Fridman Podcast #318youtube.com 14th of 22 in this recording

  17. Our readingThere are far fewer alien civilizations than people would like to believe, because the road from bacteria to humans has huge gaps in it.

    Their wordsWell, the universe is very big, but not as many as most people would like to think is my view, because the idea that there is a trajectory going from simple cellular life like bacteria, all the way through to humans, seems to me there’s some big gaps along that way, that the eukaryotic cell, the complex cell that we have is the biggest of them.

    ↗Nick Lane: Origin of Life, Evolution, Aliens, Biology, and Consciousness | Lex Fridman Podcast #318youtube.com 20th of 22 in this recording