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Biochemist Nick Lane has taken home this year’s Royal Society Prize for Science Books, it was announced at an event held last Thursday (21st October) in London. Lane’s 2009 book, Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution, explores the key gifts bestowed upon biology over the sweep of evolutionary time. These crucial inventions include DNA, sight, sex, hot blood, and death.

Lane, a University College London researcher, sparked a lively debate on The Scientist‘s Website this spring when he detailed his list and asked our readers to weigh in: “Are these the best ten evolutionary inventions?” he wrote. “Smell” and “proteins and the ribosomes that make them” were just a couple of the suggested additions submitted by commenters.

Upon winning the £10,000 prize, Lane didn’t pass up on the opportunity to advocate for a strong financial commitment to UK science, which was spared a much-protested 25% cut in the government’s Comprehensive Spending Review, released last week. “The prize stands for getting the best science to the widest audience possible,” Lane said at the Royal Society award ceremony,  “and I hope that it attracts funding next year and continues for as long as possible.”

Our congratulations go out to Lane!

Bob Grant, Associate Editor, The Scientist