book
by Nick Lane
Nick Lane argues that the history of complex life turns on energy, not genes. A single improbable merger between two simple cells gave eukaryotes the mitochondrial power budget to run big genomes, and much of what follows, from sex to ageing, traces back to that constraint. The biochemistry is demanding, but this is the most ambitious answer in print to why life on Earth looks the way it does.
July 20, 2026
Dynomight on the coming end of pseudonymity, Brian Potter scores 239 laws against their promises, and a Sears-catalog rewrite of American growth.
July 13, 2026
Scott Alexander's team publishes its plan for AI going well, Joel Mokyr defends his Nobel thesis, and Ted Gioia argues the Odyssey belongs in the music department.
March 30, 2026
Veritasium tells the story of antimatter's discovery, PBS Space Time asks if we can test quantum gravity, and Experimental History on why being serious matters.
