# Books: The Vital Question

- **Date:** 2016-09-19
- **Canonical:** https://www.gregosuri.com/2016/09/19/the-vital-question/

If you ever wondered why life is the way it is — why there are only two sexes and not three or 12 or how rocks, air and water coalesce into first living creatures in primordial earth — [Nick Lane’s “The Vital Question”](https://www.amazon.com/Vital-Question-Evolution-Origins-Complex/dp/0393088812) has lots of those answers

Nick is one of those origin thinkers that challenges the status-quo with his argument that we can only understand complexity of life by appreciating the role that energy plays in all living things — this book changed my understating of complex life and i think it will change yours too

More: [Gates Review](https://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/The-Vital-Question), [Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/Vital-Question-Evolution-Origins-Complex/dp/0393088812)