A New History of Life: The Radical New Discoveries about the Origins and Evolution of Life on Earth

Posted on 14 July 2019 by Peter D. Ward

Charles Darwin s theories, first published 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decades have radically altered that understanding In fact the currently accepted history of life on Earth is flawed and out of date Now two pioneering scientists, one already an award winning popular author, deliver an eye opening narrative that synthesizes a generation s worth of insights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 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. Free Read [ A New History of Life: The Radical New Discoveries about the Origins and Evolution of Life on Earth ] author [ Peter D. Ward ] For Kindle ePUB or eBook – kino-fada.fr This is yet another book whose authors have joined the quest to understand our origins and what might happen to our species as green house gases rise Ward and Kirschvink attempt to include the most up to date information of extinction available Just as epigenetics is currently challenging our understanding of evolution, so too are relatively recent findings in fields related to extinction patterns The role of Cuvier s catastrophism has seen a resurgence since the discovery of the meteoroid s This is yet another book whose authors have joined the quest to understand our origins and what might happen to our species as green house gases rise Ward and Kirschvink attempt to include the most up to date information of extinction available Just as epigenetics is currently challenging our understanding of evolution, so too are relatively recent findings in fields related to extinction patterns The role of Cuvier s catastrophism has seen a resurgence since the discovery of the meteoroid s impact on Earth s organisms Further findings on how body morphology and function change in response to co2 and o2 are further supporting catastrophism These authors challenge the notion that there were five extinctions and posit there were actually ten that deserve much greater attention and study, if we are to fully understand how greenhouse gases will affect our future In addition to the rise in mapping when and how extinctions h...New is a bit of an overstatement It develops themes already covered in books like Nick Lanes Oxygen not exactly recent and David Beerlings The Emerald Planet the main contribution to my understanding is a bitdepth on how oxygen and carbon dioxide have limited and unlimited life over the course of its development The back emphasises the authors belief in panspermia, specifically in the form that states life on Earth was seeded from Mars, but theres very little space devoted to that New is a bit of an overstatement It develops themes already covered in books like Nick Lane s Oxygen not exactly recent and David Beerling s The...A New History of Life is a natural history that stands out because of its large timescale 4.567 billion years, to be precise and broad intended audience Overall, it delivers on the promise of its title adjective, describing new findings and hypotheses connecting paleontology and geology, and offering genuine but grounded scientific speculation for future work For the general reader, it provides a wealth of new information, but because its overall scientific narrative lacks momentum and A New History of Life is a natural history that stands out because of its large timescale 4.567 billion years, to be precise and broad intended audience Overall, it delivers on the promise of its title adjective, describing new findings and hypotheses connecting paleontology and geology, and offering genuine but grounded scientific speculation for future work For the general reader, it provides a wealth of new information, but because its overall scientific narrative lacks momentum and internal connection, it may be most appropriate for a scientifically literate audience.It is impressive to watch the authors address the central challenge of this genre, which I have faced myself in my writing for a general audience How do you filter oceans of information and translate it into general terms Authors Ward and Kirschvink set up their filter ...At first, this book didn t catch me It started with what amount to a rant about current classification systems on, basically, fossils, and I have learnt to be dubious of divulgative books on science who criticize the current orthodoxy, mainly because the audience likely doesn t have the skill to evaluate the claims.Still, in this particular instance I ...Readable overview of last 4.5 billion years of life on Earth Dry enough to be good bedtime reading, easy to pick up put down, and often found myself reaching for phone to readabout various new facts I learned Lizards can t breathe wh...This formidable book synthesizes the latest research on the origins of life and evolution available at the time of writing 2014 It must be very difficult to keep a coherent narrative with so many conflicting hypotheses, new discoveries, massive timelines, and the amount of information that needs to be covered Ward and Kirschvink succeed, thanks to a leitmotif running throughout the narrative that low atmospheric oxygen fosters disparity various body plans and anatomies , while high oxygen This formidable book synthesizes the latest research on the origins of life and evolution available at the time of writing 2014 It must be very difficult to keep a coherent narrative with so many conflicting hypotheses, new discoveries, massive timelines, and the amount of information that needs to be covered Ward and Kirschvink succeed, thanks to a leitmotif running throughout the narrative that low atmospheric oxygen fosters disparity various body plans and anatomies , while high oxygen leads to taxonomic diversity and explosions of life Another recurring theme is the role of the geological carbon cycle in climate change and, consequently, mass extinctions descriptions of which are almost cinematographicall...An interesting and somewhat controversial new history of life The authors focus most of their attention on the roles of oxygen and CO2 in the evolution of life, sometimes to the neglect of other potential factors The origin of life itself is littlethan just re hashed and defunct ideas that have long been shown to not work, but given that origin of life research has seen no useful breakthroughs, this is not surprising As for the evolution of life once it arose, their is story similar An interesting and somewhat controversial new history of life The...The book has many interesting facts, but like most popular science writing it delves into too much speculation almost always ending with something approaching but withresearch Every chapter has the same four contents 1 Oxygen levels are important to life 2 Events that happened millions of years ago are hard to figure out 3 Evolution doesn t happen at a constant rate because the environment can change rapidly 4 The authors add a thinly veiled reference or a direct refer...This is a good overview of recent discoveries in prehistoric evolution Lots of detail about possible extinction mechanisms and quite up to date, the two authors have been researching in the field for decades It is not quite at the dry textbook level but it is not quite like a pop science book either There are occasional personal asides and commentary or anecdotes, but mostly it reports recent findings, usually with plenty of background detail Lots of footnotes for references to hundreds of This is a good overview of recent discoveries in prehistoric evolution Lots of detail about possible extinction mechanisms and quite up to date, the two authors have been researching in the field for decades It is not quite at the dry textbook level but it is not quite lik...When politics and the world around you begin crushing your will to live with their petty squabbles, read a book about the last billion years and realize how absurd their problems are in the scale of it all Reflecting on the tiny creatures of the Cambrian is my meditation, recit...

A New History of Life: The Radical New Discoveries about the Origins and Evolution of Life on Earth

14 July 2019

Peter D. Ward