Lane N. Oxygen: The Molecule that made the World

Oxford University Press, 2004. — 388 p. — ISBN: 0198607830
Oxygen Defies Easy Classification. Ever since it was discovered in the 1770s, its properties and chemistry have been squabbled over by scholars and charlatans alike. The controversy persists today. Oxygen is hailed as the Elixir of Life — a wonder tonic, a cure foreing, a beauty treatment and a potent medical therapy. It is also purported to be a fire hazard and a dangerous poison that will kill us in the end. The popular health press is contradictory. Inhaling pure oxygen in cosmopolitan 'oxygen bars' and health clinics is said to work wonders, yet the opposite — 'high-altitude therapy' — is claimed to eliminate superfluous oxygen, conferring the health benefits of austerity. So-called 'active' oxygen treatments, meaning ozone and hydrogen peroxide, are touted as miraculous scourges of bacterial infection, or as cures for cancer; yet at the same time we are told that the secret of a long life is to eat plenty of antioxidants, to protect us against the very same 'active' forms of oxygen. Oxygen seems to attract nonsense and misinformation like a magnet.Introduction: Elixir of Life — and Death
In the Beginning: The Origins and Importance of Oxygen
Silence of the Aeons: Three Billion Years of Microbial Evolution
Fuse to the Cambrian Explosion: Snowball Earth, Environmental Change and the First Animals
The Bolsover Dragonfly: Oxygen and the Rise of the Giants
Treachery in the Air: Oxygen Poisoning and X-Irradiation: A Mechanism in Common
Green Planet: Radiation and the Evolution of Photosynthesis
Looking for LUC A: Last A ncestor in an Age Before Oxygen
Portrait of a Paradox: Vitamin C and the Many Faces of an Antioxidant
The Antioxidant Machine: A Hundred and One Ways of Living with Oxygen
Sex and the Art of Bodily Maintenance: Trade-offs in the Evolution of Ageing
Eat! Or You'll Live Forever: The Triangle of Food, Sex and Longevity
Gender Bender: The Rate of Living and the Need for Sexes
Beyond Genes and Destiny: The Double-Agent Theory of Ageing and Disease
Life, Death and Oxygen: Lessons From Evolution on the Future of Ageing