A New History of Life

Author: Peter Ward
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1608199088
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 401

Book Description
The history of life on Earth is, in some form or another, known to us all--or so we think. A New History of Life offers a provocative new account, based on the latest scientific research, of how life on our planet evolved--the first major new synthesis for general readers in two decades. Charles Darwin's theories, first published more than 150 years ago, form the backbone of how we understand the history of the Earth. In reality, the currently accepted history of life on Earth is so flawed, so out of date, that it's past time we need a 'New History of Life.' In their latest book, Joe Kirschvink and Peter Ward will show that many of our most cherished beliefs about the evolution of life are wrong. Gathering and analyzing years of discoveries and research not yet widely known to the public, A New History of Life proposes a different origin of species than the one Darwin proposed, one which includes eight-foot-long centipedes, a frozen “snowball Earth”, and the seeds for life originating on Mars. Drawing on their years of experience in paleontology, biology, chemistry, and astrobiology, experts Ward and Kirschvink paint a picture of the origins life on Earth that are at once too fabulous to imagine and too familiar to dismiss--and looking forward, A New History of Life brilliantly assembles insights from some of the latest scientific research to understand how life on Earth can and might evolve far into the future.

History of Life

Author: Richard Cowen
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118510933
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 832

Book Description
This text is designed for students and anyone else with an interest in the history of life on our planet. The author describes the biological evolution of Earth’s organisms, and reconstructs their adaptations to the life they led, and the ecology and environment in which they functioned. On the grand scale, Earth is a constantly changing planet, continually presenting organisms with challenges. Changing geography, climate, atmosphere, oceanic and land environments set a stage in which organisms interact with their environments and one another, with evolutionary change an inevitable result. The organisms themselves in turn can change global environments: oxygen in our atmosphere is all produced by photosynthesis, for example. The interplay between a changing Earth and its evolving organisms is the underlying theme of the book. The book has a dedicated website which explores additional enriching information and discussion, and provides or points to the art for the book and many other images useful for teaching. See: www.wiley.com/go/cowen/historyoflife.

Life

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

The Tangled Tree

Author: David Quammen
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
ISBN: 1476776636
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 480

Book Description
In this New York Times bestseller and longlist nominee for the National Book Award, “our greatest living chronicler of the natural world” (The New York Times), David Quammen explains how recent discoveries in molecular biology affect our understanding of evolution and life’s history. In the mid-1970s, scientists began using DNA sequences to reexamine the history of all life. Perhaps the most startling discovery to come out of this new field—the study of life’s diversity and relatedness at the molecular level—is horizontal gene transfer (HGT), or the movement of genes across species lines. It turns out that HGT has been widespread and important; we now know that roughly eight percent of the human genome arrived sideways by viral infection—a type of HGT. In The Tangled Tree, “the grandest tale in biology….David Quammen presents the science—and the scientists involved—with patience, candor, and flair” (Nature). We learn about the major players, such as Carl Woese, the most important little-known biologist of the twentieth century; Lynn Margulis, the notorious maverick whose wild ideas about “mosaic” creatures proved to be true; and Tsutomu Wantanabe, who discovered that the scourge of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is a direct result of horizontal gene transfer, bringing the deep study of genome histories to bear on a global crisis in public health. “David Quammen proves to be an immensely well-informed guide to a complex story” (The Wall Street Journal). In The Tangled Tree, he explains how molecular studies of evolution have brought startling recognitions about the tangled tree of life—including where we humans fit upon it. Thanks to new technologies, we now have the ability to alter even our genetic composition—through sideways insertions, as nature has long been doing. “The Tangled Tree is a source of wonder….Quammen has written a deep and daring intellectual adventure” (The Boston Globe).

A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth

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.

The History of Life: A Very Short Introduction

Author: Michael J. Benton
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199226326
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 185

Book Description
This Very Short Introduction presents a succinct and accessible guide to the key episodes in the story of life on earth - from the very origins of life four million years ago to the extraordinary diversity of species around the globe today.

A Brief History of Life on Earth

Author: Clémence Dupont
Publisher: Prestel
ISBN: 9783791373737
Category : Adaptation (Biology)
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
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.

A Brief Illustrated History of Life on Earth

Author: Steve Parker
Publisher: Capstone
ISBN: 1515725219
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 33

Book Description
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.

History and Life

Author: Patricia Gutierrez-Smith
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : World history
Languages : en
Pages : 768

Book Description

The Prime of Life

Author: Steven Mintz
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674425685
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 421

Book Description
“By drawing on 400 years of social and economic history . . . [the book] presents a thoughtful and thorough guide through the life stages.” (Library Journal) Adulthood today is undergoing profound transformations. Men and women wait until their thirties to marry, have children, and establish full-time careers, occupying a prolonged period in which they are no longer adolescents but still lack the traditional emblems of adult identity. People at midlife struggle to sustain relationships with friends and partners, to achieve fulfilling careers, to raise their children successfully, and to age gracefully. The Prime of Life puts today’s challenges into new perspective by exploring how past generations navigated the passage to maturity. Whereas adulthood once meant culturally-prescribed roles and relationships, the social and economic convulsions of the last sixty years have transformed it fundamentally, tearing up these shared scripts and leaving adults to fashion meaning and coherence in an increasingly individualistic culture. Emphasizing adulthood’s joys and fulfillments as well as its frustrations and regrets, Mintz shows how cultural and historical circumstances have consistently reshaped what it means to be a grown up in contemporary society. “A triumph of historical writing.” ―The Spectator “[Mintz’s] message―that there are many ways to wear the mantle of responsible adulthood and that the 1950s model is a mere blip on history’s radar―is deeply necessary and long overdue.” ―New York Times Book Review “Describing the cultural, economic, and social changes from the Colonial era to today’s world . . . Mintz argues that neither religious nor secular middle-class values are adequate responses to the new generation’s problems.” —Choice “A thoughtful and strangely encouraging tour of an often difficult life stage.” ―Kirkus Reviews