Episode
Nick Lane – Life as we know it is chemically inevitable
Dwarkesh Podcast · Oct 10, 2025 · 1 h 20 min
Nick Lane has some pretty wild ideas about the evolution of life. He thinks early life was continuous with the spontaneous chemistry of undersea hydrothermal vents. Nick’s story may be wrong, but I find it remarkable that with just that starting point, you can explain so much about why life is the way that it is — the things you’re supposed to just take as givens in biology class: * Why are…