Oxygen is the story of life on Earth.... Lane?s chapters are dispatches from the frontiers of research into Earth and life history....

An extraordinary orchestration of disparate scientific disciplines, connecting the origins of life on earth with disease, age and death in human beings.

an entertaining and cogent account of how oxidative stress fits in to our rapidly expanding knowledge about ageing... deserves to be widely read

Lane's learning and historical scope enable vivid descriptions of the role oxygen has played in determining the course of evolution

A wonderful book... a scientific saga as compelling as any creation myth and Lane tells it with appropriate zeal

Enthralling... An excellent book. It held me spellbound for a 7 hour plane flight. I recommend it unreservedly

A wonderful book... a scientific saga as compelling as any creation myth and Lane tells it with appropriate zeal

Lane overturns theories about how our planet came to have an atmosphere that was 21% oxygen...

[Oxygen's] history has never been told as well as Lane tells it here... one of the better books to appear this year.

A truly unique book which takes the reader into unknown territory... might well become the talking point of 2003.

2008-06-08 A must have for the inquiring mind.

This is an extraordinary book. The breadth of coverage- from the Last Universal Common Ancestor to sex and death, via geology and biochemistry, means this is not for the faint-hearted.

If you want a book that will actually change the way you view the world then this is the one for you. An absolutely astonishing achievement.