A New History of Life: The Radical New Discoveries about the Origins and Evolution of Life on Earth, by Peter Ward, Joe Kirschvink
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A New History of Life: The Radical New Discoveries about the Origins and Evolution of Life on Earth, by Peter Ward, Joe Kirschvink
Free PDF Ebook A New History of Life: The Radical New Discoveries about the Origins and Evolution of Life on Earth, by Peter Ward, Joe Kirschvink
Charles Darwin’s theories, first published more than 150 years ago, still set the paradigm of how we understand the evolution of life--but scientific advances of recent decades have radically altered that understanding. In fact the currently accepted history of life on Earth is flawed and out of date. Now two pioneering scientists, one already an award-winning popular author, deliver an eye-opening narrative that synthesizes a generation’s worth of insights from new research.
Writing with zest, humor, and clarity, Ward and Kirschvink show that many of our long-held beliefs about the history of life are wrong. Three central themes emerge from the narrative. First, the development of life was not a stately, gradual process: Catastrophe, argue Ward and Kirschvink, shaped life’s history more than all other forces combined--from notorious events like the sudden extinction of dinosaurs to recently discovered ones like "Snowball Earth" and the "Great Oxygenation Event." One startling possibility: that life arrived on Earth from Mars. Second, life consists of carbon, but three other molecules have determined how it evolved: oxygen, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen sulfide are carbon’s silent partners. Third, ever since Darwin we have thought of evolution in terms of species. Yet it is the evolution of ecosystems--from deep-ocean vents to rainforests--that has formed the living world as we know it.
Drawing on their years of experience in paleontology, biology, chemistry, and astrobiology, Ward and Kirschvink tell a story of life on Earth that is at once too fabulous to imagine and too familiar to dismiss. And in a provocative coda, they assemble discoveries from the latest cutting-edge research to imagine how the history of life might unfold deep into the future.
A New History of Life: The Radical New Discoveries about the Origins and Evolution of Life on Earth, by Peter Ward, Joe Kirschvink- Amazon Sales Rank: #81357 in Books
- Brand: Ward, Peter/ Kirschvink, Joe
- Published on: 2015-03-10
- Released on: 2015-03-10
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.47" h x 1.42" w x 6.54" l, 1.00 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 400 pages
Review
“Ward describes the disastrous changes that can be expected as sea levels continue their accelerating rise due to global warming . . . a blunt, vivid warning.” ―Kirkus Reviews on The Flooded Earth
“A beautifully written, thoroughly research and relentlessly terrifying work, and a must-read for anybody with an interest in the environment or the future of our planet.” ―Salon.com on The Flooded Earth
“Ward describes the disastrous changes that can be expected as sea levels continue their accelerating rise due to global warming… a blunt, vivid warning.” ―Kirkus Reviews on THE FLOODED EARTH
“A beautifully written, thoroughly research and relentlessly terrifying work, and a must-read for anybody with an interest in the environment or the future of our planet.” ―Salon.com on THE FLOODED EARTH
About the Author Peter Ward is a professor of biology and of Earth and space sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle, and has authored seventeen books, among them the prizewinning Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon in the Universe, with Donald Brownlee. He also teaches as the University of Adelaide in Australia, and has received the Jim Shea Award for popular science writing. He lives in Washington. Joe Kirschvink is the Nico and Marilyn Van Wingen professor of geobiology at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. His pioneering work includes formulating and naming the "Snowball Earth" hypothesis. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Geophysical Union. He lives in Pasadena, California.
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Most helpful customer reviews
117 of 126 people found the following review helpful. Packed with great information, but very hard to read By Aaron C. Brown On the positive side, this book has some fascinating, detailed and up-to-date information about the evolution of life on earth. The authors focus on the environment as opposed to the growth and development of taxonomic hierarchy. Astronomical, geophysical, climatic and biological processes create an environment, and species proliferate to fill niches. In many cases, it is primarily biological processes that drive the climate change that leads to the next round of destruction and innovation. Particular attention is paid to lags in the process, biological innovations that remain rare for millions of years before conditions arise to support their explosive expansions; and niches that went unfilled for millions of years.Despite covering billions of years, the history of life itself occupies only a quarter or less of the book. The other material is only tangentially related, and is poorly organized and intrusive. I have no idea why there is so much on astrobiology, except that it is a specialty of one of the authors. I understand that there may someday be links between life and climate on one hand, and conditions on non-Earth planets on the other; and also between events on other planets and the origin of life on Earth. But not today. Today it is a mix of highly technical material not germane to what we know about the history of life on Earth, and some pretty wild speculation.Another focus of a lot of pages is the history of fossil hunting and other field investigation of the history of life, especially with respect to the oldest finds. Relegated to a single chapter, this could be interesting for specialists and historians, and skipped by the rest of us. But it is inserted more or less at random throughout the text. Moreover, there is the wrong amount of insider stroking and clawing, not enough to be archly amusing, but not little enough to be overlooked by people who don't really care.My final complaint is the presentation is almost willfully off-putting. There is a lot of whining about the problems with geologic era conventions, both in general and in their use in paleobiology. Not only is this tiresome, but the authors refuse to abide by any consistent convention. I would be happy if they said at the beginning that they would use conventional names and perhaps footnote the problems; or if they would use some better scheme and put a translation table in the back. But they do both, and neither, as the mood strikes. I lost count of how many times they explained the different names by US and non-US geology texts. Actually, on this particular issue, I would have welcomed one clear chapter.Even on something as important and easy as dates, the authors cannot settle on a system. Early in the book they promise to use MYO (not MYA or MYR or Megaannum or million years or billion years or "Precambrian") but then they switch terms at whim.If you're really interested in this stuff, this is the best source I have found for it, and you'll put up with the flaws. If not, I suggest you wait until someone more disciplined than these authors takes up the same subject.
67 of 82 people found the following review helpful. Poor treatment of a fascinating topic By J. Carpenter I have read and enjoyed some of Peter Ward's early work. I am very interested in this subject, so was looking forward to settling down to a good read. What a disappointment! The writing is poor, murky, and repetitive. The authors should have spent another couple of years on it, read it aloud, organized it, and hired a good copyeditor who could tell them about a style sheet. They also should have figured out how to refer to each other consistently in the text, in a way that is not distracting. I can only assume that Ward is under pressure to continue to produce, and has lost interest in quality. He needs to check out Rob Dunn's or William Logan's books. I wish I could give it half a star.
21 of 25 people found the following review helpful. The latest news from life on earth By M Ward and Kirschvink have put all the latest scientific results of the last 10 years or so that are new and different into this book. Claims to have found the very first fossils of life are presented and then discarded due to new evidence. When did bacteria start photosynthesizing? And how can we be sure? And on it goes, as they pass through the geological eras, pausing to point out how our current understanding has changed. I found this fascinating!I didn't mind a few pages on how life could have started on mars. And I wasn't put off by inconsistent usage or Terms MYO or MYA as another reviewer was. Although I must say, I wasn't much interested in their description of what will happen to our planet, one Billion years into the future. Of course, their attempt to be as up-to-date as possible means that not every idea will stand the test of time. On some issues the authors preferences become obvious. Kirschvink really likes the full-blown snowball earth hypothesis, i.e. the ice ball and not the slush ball version.But other than that, the only thing that I really want to criticize, is the lack of pictures and drawings. On the other hand eBook readers won't have any problems if they buy the Kindle version.
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