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A (Very) Short History of Life On Earth: 4.6 Billion Years in 12 Chapters

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All life will be extinct within a billion years from now as the Sun expands and possibly engulfs our planet. Unlike carbon dioxide, oxygen might be thought of as an all-round good thing, essential to life on Earth. You only have to look around you to see how many birds there are as well as things like insects and the one mammal that flies, a bat. Humans have thrived of late because their technology enables them not just to respond to the environment, as is normal in biology, but to modify the environment and add non-biological abilities (such as flying).

Solar energy is used to split water into its constituent hydrogen and oxygen, releasing more energy to drive further chemical reactions.Billion Years in 12 Chapters is an enlightening story of survival, of persistence, illuminating the delicate balance within which life has always existed, and continues to exist today. Dr Gee begins by sharing what we have pieced together so far about the birth the planet and its structure to the unexpectedly quick appearance of life, from the first stirrings of slimy membranes ensconced within cracks in rocks, that then gave rise to distinct single-celled microbes, to the advent of cellular cooperation and specialization, the appearance of multicellular life, and its evolution into a plethora of increasingly complex and specialized forms. O nce upon a time…’ The opening words of Henry Gee’s new book give notice that what follows will be a story – and a dazzling, beguiling story it is, told at an exhilarating pace.

Gee's descriptions are good, but I really missed having illustrations (for example, he refers to the 'strikingly beautiful' Dickinsonia - I wanted to see a drawing of one). As described on the cover, this is a very concise history of the forming of the Earth and the various ages it went through; including the evolution of life and the creatures we now know today (don't worry, the dinosaurs are in here too). They would eventually become extinct at the end of the Permian age period, some 252 million years ago.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.

This book starts at the very beginning of time back almost 14,000,000,000 (billion) years ago and then quickly moves to the time when the planet Earth was formed around 4.A brief history of life on Earth by Henry Gee is a short history of life on earth, concise but wonderfully told. There was always an explanation to help the layman to understand subjects they might not have encountered. Despite the fact that some bacteria cause serious disease, we could not survive without the help of the bacteria that live in our guts and enable us to digest our food.

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