How Life on Earth Began

2021-01-14 Juvenile Nonfiction

Author : Aina Bestard
Release : 2021-01-14
Genre : Juvenile Nonfiction
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 527/5 ( reviews)

GET EBOOK

Book Synopsis How Life on Earth Began by : Aina Bestard

Download or read book How Life on Earth Began written by Aina Bestard. This book was released on 2021-01-14. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What did the Earth look like 300 million years ago? Here's a chance to travel back through time and discover the days when the Earth was a very different place. In this cleverly designed book, lifting the tracing paper pages is like peeling back the layers of history, allowing readers to compare animals living in prehistoric landscapes with the fossils they left behind. The changing face of our planet comes to life, while the science behind the Earth's geology and climate is clearly explained. Packed with fascinating illustrations, this is a wonderful way to understand the story of evolution, from the earliest single-cell lifeforms to the mighty dinosaurs and onwards to the first human beings. Winner of a Non-Fiction Special Mention, Bologna Ragazzi Awards 2021

How Life Began

2010-02-15 Science

Author : Alexandre Meinesz
Release : 2010-02-15
Genre : Science
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 333/5 ( reviews)

GET EBOOK

Book Synopsis How Life Began by : Alexandre Meinesz

Download or read book How Life Began written by Alexandre Meinesz. This book was released on 2010-02-15. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The origin of life is a hotly debated topic. The Christian Bible states that God created the heavens and the Earth, all in about seven days roughly six thousand years ago. This episode in Genesis departs markedly from scientific theories developed over the last two centuries which hold that life appeared on Earth about 3.5 billion years ago in the form of bacteria, followed by unicellular organisms half a millennia later. It is this version of genesis that Alexandre Meinesz explores in this engaging tale of life's origins and evolution. How Life Began elucidates three origins, or geneses, of life—bacteria, nucleated cells, and multicellular organisms—and shows how evolution has sculpted life to its current biodiversity through four main events—mutation, recombination, natural selection, and geologic cataclysm. As an ecologist who specializes in algae, the first organisms to colonize Earth, Meinesz brings a refreshingly novel voice to the history of biodiversity and emphasizes here the role of unions in organizing life. For example, the ingestion of some bacteria by other bacteria led to mitochondria that characterize animal and plant cells, and the chloroplasts of plant cells. As Meinesz charmingly recounts, life’s grandeur is a result of an evolutionary tendency toward sociality and solidarity. He suggests that it is our cohesion and collaboration that allows us to solve the environmental problems arising in the decades and centuries to come. Rooted in the science of evolution but enlivened with many illustrations from other disciplines and the arts, How Life Began intertwines the rise of bacteria and multicellular life with Vermeer’s portrait of Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, the story of Genesis and Noah, Meinesz’s son’s early experiences with Legos, and his own encounters with other scientists. All of this brings a very human and humanistic tone to Meinesz’s charismatic narrative of the three origins of life.

The Origin of Life

2006-09-28 Science

Author : Paul Davies
Release : 2006-09-28
Genre : Science
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 839/5 ( reviews)

GET EBOOK

Book Synopsis The Origin of Life by : Paul Davies

Download or read book The Origin of Life written by Paul Davies. This book was released on 2006-09-28. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The origins of life remains one of the great unsolved mysteries of science. Growing evidence suggests that the first organisms lived deep underground, in environments previously thought to be uninhabitable, and that microbes carried inside rocks have travelled between Earth and Mars. But the question remains: how can life spring into being from non-living chemicals? THE FIFTH MIRACLE reveals the remarkable new theories and discoveries that seem set to transform our understanding of life's role in the unfolding drama of the cosmos.

A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth

2021-11-09 Science

Author : Henry Gee
Release : 2021-11-09
Genre : Science
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 667/5 ( reviews)

GET EBOOK

Book Synopsis A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth by : Henry Gee

Download or read book A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth written by Henry Gee. This book was released on 2021-11-09. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

First Life

2011 Nature

Author : David Deamer
Release : 2011
Genre : Nature
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 458/5 ( reviews)

GET EBOOK

Book Synopsis First Life by : David Deamer

Download or read book First Life written by David Deamer. This book was released on 2011. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The origin of life may have happened an inconceivably long time ago, but scientists like David Deamer are making major advances in understanding how the first microbes began to seethe on our planet, ultimately giving rise to all species alive today. In First Life, Deamer offers a delightful synthesis of research into life's dawn with his own vision for how it came to be."—Carl Zimmer, author of The Tangled Bank: An Introduction to Evolution "No living scientist has had a greater impact on our understanding of life’s origins than Dave Deamer. In First Life, his remarkably engaging, constantly lucid, and delightfully personal narrative, Deamer takes us behind the scenes of origins research as no one else could. What a story!”—Robert M. Hazen, Senior Staff Scientist, Carnegie Institution, and author of Genesis: The Scientific Quest for Life's Origins "David Deamer has written a truly wonderful book. A preeminent scientist in the origin of life field, he has produced a synoptic, wise, and warmly human discussion. Anyone interested in how we came to exist in our universe had best read this book.”—Stuart Kauffman, author of At Home in the Universe: The Search for the Laws of Self-Organization and Complexity and Reinventing the Sacred: A New View of Science, Reason, and Religion

Popular eBooks

How Life on Earth Began

How Life Began

The Origin of Life

A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth

First Life

You may also like...