"It has taken billions of years for Earth to become the planet it is today. When Planet Earth Was New looks back to the very beginning, using a poetic approach grounded in scientific fact to give an overview of how the planet has changed over time: from hot lava to the formation of oceans to the evolution of living things in water and on land. The book also includes the relatively recent evolution of humans - who are just a tiny speck in the sweep...

After chemists crystallised a new chemical for the first time, it became easier and easier to crystallise in laboratories all over the world. After rats at Harvard first escaped from a new kind of water maze, successive generations learned quicker and quicker. Then rats in Melbourne, Australia, learned yet faster. Rats with no trained ancestors shared in this improvement. Rupert Sheldrake sees these processes as examples of morphic resonance. Past...

An essential history of Western scientific studies into the origins of life examines historical discoveries in the contexts of philosophical debates, political change, and evolving understandings about the complexities of biology.

"In a new theory they call "facilitated variation," Kirschner and Gerhart elevate the individual organism from a passive target of natural selection to a central player in the three-billion-year history of evolution. In clear, accessible language, the authors invite every reader to contemplate daring new ideas about evolution. By closing the major gap in Darwin's theory Kirschner and Gerhart also provide a timely scientific rebuttal to critics of...

"What is life? How did it start? Long, long ago, no one knows exactly where or when, a tiny bubble formed that was a Little Bit Different. It was the first living cell. Everyone's ancestor. And so the story of life begins."--

Astrobiology, the study of life in space, is one of today's fastest growing fields of science. In this accessible and elegantly reasoned book, scholar and researcher Impey explores the foundations of this rapidly developing discipline, where it's going, and what it's likely to find. If Earth is not the only planet, it is so far the only living one that we know of. Impey reveals the incredible proliferation and variety of life on Earth, paying special...

This book takes readers into the latest discoveries about early microbial life, where findings from the earth's furthest extremes are seeking to reshape the future of our planet and ourselves. As scientists take the next step in applying the lessons of popular and controversial research, the world's tiniest, and sometimes most dangerous, microorganisms are being tapped as allies in achieving better health and sustainable energy, while revealing fundamental...