It’s a rather great thing that there is so much fascinating nonfiction out there to read. In a world of ridiculous videos claiming ridiculous things like archeologists uncovered buried aliens, we can still rely on people like Nick Lane to teach us about the world. Oxygen: The Molecule That Made the World isn’t simply an in-depth read on respiration and photosynthesis, it’s about the history of the world. Banded iron formations were not on my radar, but I now have a sample on my shelf entirely because I read this book. I look over and see earth history. Like so many other books, I found that as much as I thought I knew, I still had so much more to learn.

I have read or listened to other books/articles/lectures on world history, but never one that used one specific vehicle to do it. Obviously the vehicle here is oxygen and it really made the lessons taught more fascinating as a result. We all know that oxygen is all-encompassing, but more than I realized. And it is not simply the use of oxygen, but its impacts, like avoiding oxygen, avoiding free radicals, or like the banded iron deposited in ancient oceans.

I did research on something the author wrote about, and I am not convinced he was correct. Not because I physically did the lab work, but just other researchers dispute the Black Sea Deluge Hypothesis. It’s not for certain right or wrong, but shouldn’t be presented as a major event when it’s that uncertain (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sea_deluge_hypothesis). I felt this worth mentioning because there could be other things mentioned in this book that need some further research.