The Vital Question is a book by the English biochemist Nick Lane about the way the evolution and origin of life on Earth was constrained by the provision of energy.

The book was well received by critics; The New York Times, for example, found it "seductive and often convincing"[1] though the reviewer considered much of it speculative beyond the evidence provided.

The Guardian wrote that the book presented hard evidence and tightly interlocking theory on a question once thought inaccessible to science, the origin of life.

[2] New Scientist found the book's arguments powerful and persuasive with many testable ideas; that it was not easy to read was compensated by the "incredible, epic story"[3] that it told.

[8][9][10][11] Nick Lane is a biochemist at University College London; he researches "evolutionary biochemistry and bioenergetics, focusing on the origin of life and the evolution of complex cells."

The electrical energy is transformed into forms that the cell can use by a chain of energy-handling structures including ancient proteins such as cytochromes, ion channels, and the enzyme ATP synthase, all built into the membrane.

"[1] Peter Forbes, reviewing The Vital Question in The Guardian, noted that the origin of life was once thought to be "safely consigned to wistful armchair musing", but that in the past 20 years new research in genomics, geology, biochemistry and molecular biology have transformed thinking in the field.

[2] Michael LePage, reviewing the book in New Scientist, writes that the fact that complex cells only evolved once is "very peculiar when you think about it", but it is just one of many large mysteries that Lane addresses, including aging and death, sex, and speciation.