Author: Robert M. Hazen Publisher: Penguin ISBN: 0143123645 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 322
Book Description
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
Author: Simon Lamb Publisher: ISBN: 9780563487074 Category : Earth sciences Languages : en Pages : 240
Book Description
By describing the remarkable forces that formed and shaped our ever-changing world, EARTH STORY gives us a new understanding of the planet and our place within its evolution. When and how was the Earth formed? What is the link between earthquakes, volcanoes and the creation of the continents? How do mountains affect our climate? What triggers Ice Ages? EARTH STORY answers these and many other questions, and tells the amazing story of our planet and its constantly changing nature. Two centuries ago, scientists began to investigate the history of the Earth by examining the rocks beneath its surface and began to formulate the astonishing concept of geological time. Using this discovery as their starting point, the authors of EARTH STORY unravel the fascinating history of the Earth from its earliest beginnings to the dawn of human civilization. Two themes emerge as this compelling story unfolds. Firstly, from its molten core to the outermost reaches of its atmosphere, our planet operates as one vast interlinked system. Aspects of our landscape and climate that seem at first quite distinct - such as earthquakes, volcanoes, glaciers and monsoons - are in fact intimately related to each other. Secondly, the active geology of our world has been vital to the origin of life and the progress of evolution. David Sington and Simon Lamb tackle these ideas, using full-colour illustrations, stunning photography and the latest scientific thinking.
Author: Andrew H. Knoll Publisher: HarperCollins ISBN: 0062853937 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 272
Book Description
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).
Author: Richard Fortey Publisher: Vintage ISBN: 0307761185 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 566
Book Description
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
Author: Grian A Cutanda Publisher: ISBN: 9788409150991 Category : Languages : en Pages : 516
Book Description
The Earth Stories Collection is a global project consisting of a repository of myths, legends, fables, and folktales from all cultures on the planet, stories capable of conveying a systemic worldview and illustrating the ethical principles and values of the Earth Charter.It is inspired by the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway, an agricultural seed bank where seeds from all regions of the planet are preserved as a food guarantee for humanity in the face of the possibility of a global crisis or disaster.In this sense, The Earth Stories Collection would become a cultural seed bank, a base of global educational resources for the construction -or reconstruction- of a deeply sustainable global society, based on social and economic justice, and values of peace and democracy; that is, the values of the Earth Charter.The Earth Stories Collection is an initiative launched by The Avalon Project - Initiative for a Culture of Peace, in collaboration with the Secretariat of Earth Charter International and the Scottish International Storytelling Festival.In this book you will find the first installment of 45 myths, legends and folktales from around the world capable of transmitting a systemic and ecocentric worldview, as well as the principles and values of the Earth Charter. But you will also find, in the first half of the book, the theoretical and scientific justification that has given rise to the Collection.
Author: Henry Gee Publisher: St. Martin's Press ISBN: 1250276667 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 142
Book Description
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.
Author: Stacy McAnulty Publisher: Henry Holt and Company (BYR) ISBN: 1250197910 Category : Juvenile Nonfiction Languages : en Pages : 40
Book Description
A lighthearted nonfiction picture book about the formation and history of the Earth--told from the perspective of the Earth itself! "Hi, I’m Earth! But you can call me Planet Awesome." Prepare to learn all about Earth from the point-of-view of Earth herself! In this funny yet informative book, filled to the brim with kid-friendly facts, readers will discover key moments in Earth’s life, from her childhood more than four billion years ago all the way up to present day. Beloved children's book author Stacy McAnulty helps Earth tell her story, and award-winning illustrator David Litchfield brings the words to life. The book includes back matter with even more interesting tidbits. This title has Common Core connections.
Author: Jonathan Litton Publisher: Caterpillar Books ISBN: 9781838914592 Category : Languages : en Pages : 72
Book Description
Welcome to a world of wonders! In this enormous book about the Earth there is so much to explore! Readers can marvel at the physical planet, travel back in time to primordial Earth, explore all branches of the tree of life, discover habitats from oceans to deserts, learn how the weather works and take a tour of the human planet from the Maasai steppe to Manhattan.
Author: Robert M. Hazen
Author: Simon Lamb
Author: Andrew H. Knoll
Author: Richard Fortey
Author: Grian A Cutanda
Author: Henry Gee
Author: Laura Lee Benson
Author: Patricia Klindienst
Author: Stacy McAnulty
Author: Jonathan Litton