Oxygen: The Molecule that Made the World

I don’t love the way this book is organized — its chapters bounce around and Nick Lane's discursive narrative is not well-synthesized — but buried within each paragraph are detailed and carefully-considered insights on this most essential of elements. Lane has clearly done an impressive amount of research, as he explores the nature and importance of oxygen, while also touching on a variety of adjacent subjects: evolution, nutrition, global warming, aging and disease. At the micro level, this one of the better works of popular science in recent years.