The Good Book Guide says:

The Good Book Guide (online version), 1st February 2003

Oxygen is one of the most abundant of the elements found on Earth, both as a gas comprising one fifth of the atmosphere and in its most ubiquitous compound, water. In both these states it is vital to most life, but paradoxically in its pure gaseous form oxygen is toxic, and where present in the body as free-radicals (a reactive form of oxygen produced continuously at low levels by respiration) it is deleterious to health.

How did such a potentially dangerous element become so bound up with life on Earth? And how does life cope with its toxicity? In this excellent book Nick Lane outlines the first appearance of oxygen and its subsequent fluctuations by examining the record left in prehistoric rocks. He postulates a peak in the atmosphere of 35% in the Carboniferous period and explains how oxygen was the cornerstone of the evolutionary explosion in the Precambrian era. He also reviews the theory that oxygen is implicated in ageing, and argues the case for a new viewpoint: that ageing is not a function of time but a function of oxidative stress, which tends to rise over time.

Professor Lane presents his evidence and theories with commendable clarity. The science he draws on, while demanding concentration, should be accessible to anyone with a basic scientific knowledge, and he links oxygen to other fascinating subjects - the discovery of radium by Marie Curie, the impressively un-killable bacterium Dienococcus radiodurans (one of the most radiation-resistant organisms on Earth), and the longevity of birds and bats, to name but a few. A scholarly and readable introduction to an important topic.