Download or read book A Brief History of Earth written by Andrew H. Knoll and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2021-04-27 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Harvard’s acclaimed geologist “charts Earth’s history in accessible style” (AP) “A sublime chronicle of our planet." –Booklist, STARRED review How well do you know the ground beneath your feet? Odds are, where you’re standing was once cooking under a roiling sea of lava, crushed by a towering sheet of ice, rocked by a nearby meteor strike, or perhaps choked by poison gases, drowned beneath ocean, perched atop a mountain range, or roamed by fearsome monsters. Probably most or even all of the above. The story of our home planet and the organisms spread across its surface is far more spectacular than any Hollywood blockbuster, filled with enough plot twists to rival a bestselling thriller. But only recently have we begun to piece together the whole mystery into a coherent narrative. Drawing on his decades of field research and up-to-the-minute understanding of the latest science, renowned geologist Andrew H. Knoll delivers a rigorous yet accessible biography of Earth, charting our home planet's epic 4.6 billion-year story. Placing twenty first-century climate change in deep context, A Brief History of Earth is an indispensable look at where we’ve been and where we’re going. Features original illustrations depicting Earth history and nearly 50 figures (maps, tables, photographs, graphs).
Download or read book A Brief History of Life on Earth written by Clémence Dupont and published by Prestel. This book was released on 2018-11 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of life on earth unfolds in dramatic fashion in this amazing concertina picture book that takes readers from 4.6 billion years ago to the present day. Fully expanded to 8 meters (26 feet), this spectacular visual timeline is a very impressive panorama that reveals evolution in all its glory. Full color.
Download or read book A Brief History of the Earth s Climate written by Steven Earle and published by New Society Publishers. This book was released on 2021-10-12 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: I love it. Earle understands the big climate picture and paints it with exceptional clarity. — JAMES HANSEN, director, Climate Science, Awareness and Solutions, Columbia University Earth Institute What's natural, what's caused by humans, and why climate change is a disaster for all A Brief History of the Earth's Climate is an accessible myth-busting guide to the natural evolution of the Earth's climate over 4.6 billion years, and how and why human-caused global warming and climate change is different and much more dangerous. Richly illustrated chapters cover the major historical climate change processes including evolution of the sun, plate motions and continental collisions, volcanic eruptions, changes to major ocean currents, Earth's orbital variations, sunspot variations, and short-term ocean current cycles. As well as recent human-induced climate change and an overview of the implications of the COVID pandemic for climate change. Content includes: Understanding natural geological processes that shaped the climate How human impacts are now rapidly changing the climate Tipping points and the unfolding climate crisis What we can do to limit the damage to the planet and ecosystems Countering climate myths peddled by climate change science deniers. A Brief History of the Earth's Climate is essential reading for everyone who is looking to understand what drives climate change, counter skeptics and deniers, and take action on the climate emergency. AWARDS SILVER | 2022 IPPY Awards - Science
Download or read book A Very Short History of Life on Earth written by Henry Gee and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2021-11-09 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Royal Society's Science Book of the Year "[A]n exuberant romp through evolution, like a modern-day Willy Wonka of genetic space. Gee’s grand tour enthusiastically details the narrative underlying life’s erratic and often whimsical exploration of biological form and function.” —Adrian Woolfson, The Washington Post In the tradition of Richard Dawkins, Bill Bryson, and Simon Winchester—An entertaining and uniquely informed narration of Life's life story. In the beginning, Earth was an inhospitably alien place—in constant chemical flux, covered with churning seas, crafting its landscape through incessant volcanic eruptions. Amid all this tumult and disaster, life began. The earliest living things were no more than membranes stretched across microscopic gaps in rocks, where boiling hot jets of mineral-rich water gushed out from cracks in the ocean floor. Although these membranes were leaky, the environment within them became different from the raging maelstrom beyond. These havens of order slowly refined the generation of energy, using it to form membrane-bound bubbles that were mostly-faithful copies of their parents—a foamy lather of soap-bubble cells standing as tiny clenched fists, defiant against the lifeless world. Life on this planet has continued in much the same way for millennia, adapting to literally every conceivable setback that living organisms could encounter and thriving, from these humblest beginnings to the thrilling and unlikely story of ourselves. In A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth, Henry Gee zips through the last 4.6 billion years with infectious enthusiasm and intellectual rigor. Drawing on the very latest scientific understanding and writing in a clear, accessible style, he tells an enlightening tale of survival and persistence that illuminates the delicate balance within which life has always existed.
Download or read book A Brief Illustrated History of Life on Earth written by Steve Parker and published by Capstone. This book was released on 2017-01-01 with total page 33 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Brief Illustrated History of Life on Earth charts the evolution of living species all the way from 2.5 billion years ago, through the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods and right through to today. With stunning full-color images and illustrations, this beautiful book is sure to fascinate and charm the young reader.
Download or read book The Real History of Earth written by Sal Rachele and published by Light Technology Publishing. This book was released on 2020-01-07 with total page 453 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Welcome to the Real History of Earth. You will not find this material in your high school or college history classes. In fact, the so-called “powers that be” who appear to control the educational process on this planet definitely DO NOT want you to have this information. It is said that knowledge is power. The purpose of this book is to empower you to live an awakened life, full of creativity and compassion. Knowing how and why things are the way they are on Earth gives each of us the power to make effective changes, both within ourselves and the world. If you are a physicist, biologist, archaeologist, anthropologist or economist, this material will likely challenge your deepest and most cherished ideas of reality. Due to the world of the Internet, the ideas presented herein can be researched and investigated thoroughly, and the author encourages you to do so. This book explores several deep questions that have plagued humanity since time began, including such timeless classics as “Why is there so much suffering on Earth?” and “How do we break out of our self-imposed prison of negative thoughts and beliefs?” We will also answer the question of how we came to be on this small planet at the edge of a rather average galaxy, with our racial and ethnic mix, languages and cultural habits. Also, we will tread on some “sacred cows,” including the belief that humanity evolved from the ape, and the idea that this is the most advanced civilization that has existed on Earth (both incorrect assumptions). We urge you to keep an open mind while reading this book. Do not blindly accept or reject anything that is being said. Unless a mind is open, there is no way to attain greater knowledge and wisdom. Have you ever tried pouring liquid into a closed container? So, dear readers, fasten your seat belt and open the book for a wonderful ride!
Download or read book Life on a Young Planet written by Andrew H. Knoll and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Knoll explores the deep history of life from its origins on a young planet to the incredible Cambrian explosion, with the very latest discoveries in paleontology integrated with emerging insights from molecular biology and earth system science. 100 illustrations.
Download or read book Origins written by Lewis Dartnell and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2019-05-14 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times-bestselling author explains how the physical world shaped the history of our species When we talk about human history, we often focus on great leaders, population forces, and decisive wars. But how has the earth itself determined our destiny? Our planet wobbles, driving changes in climate that forced the transition from nomadism to farming. Mountainous terrain led to the development of democracy in Greece. Atmospheric circulation patterns later on shaped the progression of global exploration, colonization, and trade. Even today, voting behavior in the south-east United States ultimately follows the underlying pattern of 75 million-year-old sediments from an ancient sea. Everywhere is the deep imprint of the planetary on the human. From the cultivation of the first crops to the founding of modern states, Origins reveals the breathtaking impact of the earth beneath our feet on the shape of our human civilizations.
Download or read book Life written by Richard Fortey and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2011-03-23 with total page 566 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By one of Britain's most gifted scientists: a magnificently daring and compulsively readable account of life on Earth (from the "big bang" to the advent of man), based entirely on the most original of all sources--the evidence of fossils. With excitement and driving intelligence, Richard Fortey guides us from the barren globe spinning in space, through the very earliest signs of life in the sulphurous hot springs and volcanic vents of the young planet, the appearance of cells, the slow creation of an atmosphere and the evolution of myriad forms of plants and animals that could then be sustained, including the magnificent era of the dinosaurs, and on to the last moment before the debut of Homo sapiens. Ranging across multiple scientific disciplines, explicating in wonderfully clear and refreshing prose their findings and arguments--about the origins of life, the causes of species extinctions and the first appearance of man--Fortey weaves this history out of the most delicate traceries left in rock, stone and earth. He also explains how, on each aspect of nature and life, scientists have reached the understanding we have today, who made the key discoveries, who their opponents were and why certain ideas won. Brimful of wit, fascinating personal experience and high scholarship, this book may well be our best introduction yet to the complex history of life on Earth. A Book-of-the-Month Club Main Selection With 32 pages of photographs
Download or read book The History of Earth written by William K. Hartmann and published by Workman Publishing. This book was released on 1991 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Paintings enhance the text through a chronicle of our planet--its origin, its development, and its future.
Download or read book The Story of Earth written by Robert M. Hazen and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2013-07-30 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hailed by The New York Times for writing “with wonderful clarity about science . . . that effortlessly teaches as it zips along,” nationally bestselling author Robert M. Hazen offers a radical new approach to Earth history in this intertwined tale of the planet’s living and nonliving spheres. With an astrobiologist’s imagination, a historian’s perspective, and a naturalist’s eye, Hazen calls upon twenty-first-century discoveries that have revolutionized geology and enabled scientists to envision Earth’s many iterations in vivid detail—from the mile-high lava tides of its infancy to the early organisms responsible for more than two-thirds of the mineral varieties beneath our feet. Lucid, controversial, and on the cutting edge of its field, The Story of Earth is popular science of the highest order. "A sweeping rip-roaring yarn of immense scope, from the birth of the elements in the stars to meditations on the future habitability of our world." -Science "A fascinating story." -Bill McKibben
Download or read book Mankind Beyond Earth written by Claude A. Piantadosi and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2013-01-01 with total page 383 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seeking to reenergize Americans' passion for the space program, the value of further exploration of the Moon, and the importance of human beings on the final frontier, Claude A. Piantadosi presents a rich history of American space exploration and its major achievements. He emphasizes the importance of reclaiming national command of our manned program and continuing our unmanned space missions, and he stresses the many adventures that still await us in the unfolding universe. Acknowledging space exploration's practical and financial obstacles, Piantadosi challenges us to revitalize American leadership in space exploration in order to reap its scientific bounty. Piantadosi explains why space exploration, a captivating story of ambition, invention, and discovery, is also increasingly difficult and why space experts always seem to disagree. He argues that the future of the space program requires merging the practicalities of exploration with the constraints of human biology. Space science deals with the unknown, and the margin (and budget) for error is small. Lethal near-vacuum conditions, deadly cosmic radiation, microgravity, vast distances, and highly scattered resources remain immense physical problems. To forge ahead, America needs to develop affordable space transportation and flexible exploration strategies based in sound science. Piantadosi closes with suggestions for accomplishing these goals, combining his healthy skepticism as a scientist with an unshakable belief in space's untapped—and wholly worthwhile—potential.
Download or read book Earth Before the Dinosaurs written by Sébastien Steyer and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2012-06 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the Earth prior to dinosaurs and examines the creatures that lived here.
Download or read book The Earth on Show written by Ralph O'Connor and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2008-09-15 with total page 557 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the turn of the nineteenth century, geology—and its claims that the earth had a long and colorful prehuman history—was widely dismissedasdangerous nonsense. But just fifty years later, it was the most celebrated of Victorian sciences. Ralph O’Connor tracks the astonishing growth of geology’s prestige in Britain, exploring how a new geohistory far more alluring than the standard six days of Creation was assembled and sold to the wider Bible-reading public. Shrewd science-writers, O’Connor shows, marketed spectacular visions of past worlds, piquing the public imagination with glimpses of man-eating mammoths, talking dinosaurs, and sea-dragons spawned by Satan himself. These authors—including men of science, women, clergymen, biblical literalists, hack writers, blackmailers, and prophets—borrowed freely from the Bible, modern poetry, and the urban entertainment industry, creating new forms of literature in order to transport their readers into a vanished and alien past. In exploring the use of poetry and spectacle in the promotion of popular science, O’Connor proves that geology’s success owed much to the literary techniques of its authors. An innovative blend of the history of science, literary criticism, book history, and visual culture, The Earth on Show rethinks the relationship between science and literature in the nineteenth century.
Download or read book Faith Reason Earth History written by Leonard Brand and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Faith, Reason, and Earth History presents Leonard Brand¿s argument for constructive thinking about origins and earth history in the context of Scripture, showing readers how to analyze available scientific data and approach unsolved problems. Faith does not need to fear the data, but can contribute to progress in understanding earth history within the context of God¿s Word while still being honest about unanswered questions. In this patient explanation of the mission of science, the author models his conviction that ¿above all, it is essential that we treat each other with respect, even if we disagree on fundamental issues.¿ The original edition of this work (1997) was one of the first books on this topic written from the point of view of an experienced research scientist. A career biologist, paleontologist, and teacher, Brand brings to this well-illustrated book a rich assortment of practical scientific examples. This thoughtful and rigorous presentation makes Brand¿s landmark work highly useful both as a college-level text and as an easily accessible treatment for the educated lay person.
Download or read book Earth in 100 Groundbreaking Discoveries written by Douglas Palmer and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An illustrated survey of 100 key events in Earth's dramatic history.
Download or read book The Musical Human written by Michael Spitzer and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-04-01 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK 'Full of delightful nuggets' Guardian online 'Entertaining, informative and philosphical ... An essential read' All About History 'Extraordinary range ... All the world and more is here' Evening Standard 165 million years ago saw the birth of rhythm. 66 million years ago came the first melody. 40 thousand years ago Homo sapiens created the first musical instrument. Today music fills our lives. How we have created, performed and listened to music throughout history has defined what our species is and how we understand who we are. Yet it is an overlooked part of our origin story. The Musical Human takes us on an exhilarating journey across the ages – from Bach to BTS and back – to explore the vibrant relationship between music and the human species. With insights from a wealth of disciplines, world-leading musicologist Michael Spitzer renders a global history of music on the widest possible canvas, from global history to our everyday lives, from insects to apes, humans to artificial intelligence. 'Michael Spitzer has pulled off the impossible: a Guns, Germs and Steel for music' Daniel Levitin 'A thrilling exploration of what music has meant and means to humankind' Ian Bostridge
