The story of Earth
Earth evolves. From first atom to molecule, mineral to magma, granite crust to single cell to verdant living landscape, ours is a planet constantly in flux. In this radical new approach to Earth's biography, senior Carnegie Institution researcher and national bestselling author Robert M. Hazen reveals how the co-evolution of the geosphere and biosphere--of rocks and living matter--has shaped our planet into the only one of its kind in the Solar System, if not the entire cosmos. With an astrobiologist's imagination, a historian's perspective, and a naturalist's passion for the ground beneath our feet, Hazen explains how changes on an atomic level translate into dramatic shifts in Earth's makeup over its 4.567 billion year existence. He calls upon a flurry of recent discoveries to portray our planet's many iterations in vivid detail--from its fast-rotating infancy when the Sun rose every five hours and the Moon filled 250 times more sky than it does now, to its sea-bathed youth before the first continents arose; from the Great Oxidation Event that turned the land red, to the globe-altering volcanism that may have been the true killer of the dinosaurs. Through Hazen's theory of "co-evolution," we learn how reactions between organic molecules and rock crystals may have generated Earth's first organisms, which in turn are responsible for more than two-thirds of the mineral varieties on the planet--thousands of different kinds of crystals that could not exist in a nonliving world.
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- I really highly recommend Robert Hazen's _Story of Earth_ [1] if you're into this sort of stuff. Highly knowledgeable and entertaining geologist argues that the geosphere and the biosphere should really be viewed as one co-evolving system, over deep time. There are thousands of species of minerals that can only exist because of the action of life, and those minerals in turn enable new forms of life, which enable new species of mineral, and so on in a complex and ever evolving system within which we exist for only a fraction of an instant.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Story-Earth-Billion-Stardust-Living/d...
- Obviously climate change is an important question, but sadly I think this issue suffers from the same problems of binary thinking that so many other things do in our society right now. It's nearly impossible to have a nuanced conversation without getting shut down as "bothsidesism" or risking offending some sacred cow. Climate change is a very real problem, and one that we need to address. I won't beat on this, but if you want to understand the science behind it, as well as one of the greatest stories ever told, I highly recommend Robert Hazen's "The Origin and Evolution of Earth" Great Course or the book version of the material, "The Story of Earth."
Now that said, there is a real problem of incentives in academia. The way funding is procured, and the way peer review currently works, is causing serious issues. Any sort of dissent has also become toxic to one's career, creating a heavy incentive not to challenge any established "knowledge."
- Related: I recently read "The Story of Earth" by Robert Hazen and it's a fascinating read. Highly recommend. The author also has a few Great Courses courses. "The Origin and Evolution of Earth" is a companion to the book (it covers much of the same material) but the two together left me with significant retention of the material. It's fascinating to go out hiking now with my kids and be able to entertain and educate them with facts about the rocks and formations we are hiking on :-)
- I'm currently reading: The Story of Earth: The First 4.5 Billion Years, from Stardust to Living Planet by Robert Hazen.
Anyone have recommendations for books about Earth's past?
- "The Story of Earth: The First 4.5 Billion Years, from Stardust to Living Planet" by Robert M. Hazen has a chapter about genesis of elements ( big bang, star formation, supernovae, planet formation, etc).
