The Story of Earth: The First 4.5 Billion Years, from Stardust to Living Planet

Hailed by The New York Times for writing "with wonderful clarity about science . . . that effortlessly teaches as it zips along," nationally bestselling author Robert M. Hazen offers a radical new approach to Earth history in this intertwined tale of the planet's living and nonliving spheres. With an astrobiologist's imagination, a historian's perspective, and a naturalist's eye, Hazen calls upon twenty-first-century discoveries that have revolutionized geology and enabled scientists to envision Earth's many iterations in vivid detail--from the mile-high lava tides of its infancy to the early organisms responsible for more than two-thirds of the mineral varieties beneath our feet. Lucid, controversial, and on the cutting edge of its field, The Story of Earth is popular science of the highest order.

A sweeping rip-roaring yarn of immense scope, from the birth of the elements in the stars to meditations on the future habitability of our world. -Science

A fascinating story. -Bill McKibben

Author: Robert M. Hazen
Publisher: Penguin Books
Published: 07/30/2013
Pages: 320
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.50lbs
Size: 7.90h x 5.30w x 0.70d
ISBN13: 9780143123644
ISBN10: 0143123645
BISAC Categories:
- Science | Earth Sciences | Geology
- Science | Natural History
- Science | Space Science | Cosmology

About the Author
Robert M. Hazen is the Clarence Robinson professor of earth science at George Mason University and a senior scientist at the Carnegie Institution's Geophysical Laboratory. The author of numerous books--including the bestselling Science Matters--he lives in Glen Echo, Maryland.