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The Life and Death of Planet Earth: How the New Science of Astrobiology Charts the Ultimate Fate of Our World
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“They deftly bring together findings from many disparate areas of science in a book that science buffs will find hard to put down.” —Publishers Weekly
Science has worked hard to piece together the story of the evolution of our world up to this point, but only recently have we developed the understanding and the tools to describe the entire life cycle of our planet. Peter D. Ward and Donald Brownlee, a geologist and an astronomer respectively, are in the vanguard of the new field of astrobiology. Combining their knowledge of how the critical sustaining systems of our planet evolve through time with their understanding of how stars and solar systems grow and change throughout their own life cycles, the authors tell the story of the second half of Earth’s life. In this masterful melding of groundbreaking research and captivating, eloquent science writing, Ward and Brownlee provide a comprehensive portrait of Earth’s life cycle that allows us to understand and appreciate how the planet sustains itself today, and offers us a glimpse of our place in the cosmic order.
Peter Ward, along with Don Brownlee, is the author of the acclaimed and bestselling Rare Earth. Ward is a professor of geological science and zoology at the University of Washington and the author of nine other books, including Future Evolution, The Call of Distant Mammoths, and The End of Evolution, which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.
Don Brownlee is a professor of astronomy at the University of Washington; currently he is leading NASA's Stardust mission.
Imagine our planet far into the future, Carl Sagan's "pale blue dot" reduced to a reddish-brown husk, a mere shell of its former self. It seems like the stuff of science fiction novels, but it is the reality of science today. We are at a unique moment in our history—Earth's midlife—a point at which science has given us the capability to examine the birth of our planet as well as the forces that will bring about its eventual death. Scientists are finally beginning to understand the cycles that make Earth work and to write, for the first time, a biography of our planet. This revolution in thinking, which finds its voice in this book, is as dramatic, in its own way, as the discovery of Earth revolving around the sun.
Peter D. Ward and Donald Brownlee—a paleontologist and an astronomer, respectively—are helping to bring this groundbreaking work to a popular audience. Vanguards of a new field called astrobiology (the science of how planets and organisms live and die), Ward and Brownlee combine the discoveries of astronomers, Earth scientists, and those in other scientific disciplines. Astronomers are well-poised to study the end of our world, since they have studied the end of other worlds, while paleontologists can tell us about "worlds" that have already ended on our planet, such as the death of dinosaurs and other signposts in the rock and fossil record.
Ward and Brownlee present a comprehensive portrait of Earth's ultimate fate, allowing us to understand and appreciate how our planet sustains itself, and offer a glimpse at our place in the cosmic order. As they depict the process of planetary evolution, they peer deep into the future destiny of Earth, showing us that we are living near or shortly after Earth's biological peak. Eventually, the process of planetary evolution will reverse itself; life as we know it will subside until only the simplest forms remain. In time they, too, will disappear. The oceans will evaporate, the atmosphere will degrade, and as the sun slowly expands, Earth will eventually meet a fiery end.
Combining groundbreaking research with lucid, eloquent writing, this book offers fresh and realistic insight into the true nature if our world and how we should best steward our planet for the long-term benefit of our species.
"A fascinating glimpse of the possible ends of the world examined through the emerging science of astrobiology."—Seattle Post-Intelligencer
"Riveting . . . The Life and Death of Planet Earth is a gripping tale of modern scientific investigation that underlies the insights produced when scientific disciplines cooperate."—New Scientist
"A fascinating glimpse of the possible ends of the world examined through the emerging science of astrobiology."—Seattle Post-Intelligencer
"This is the first real biography of the Earth—not only a brilliant portrait of the emergence and evolution of life on this planet, but a vivid and frightening look at Earth's remote future. Peter Ward and Donald Brownlee combine storytelling power with extreme scientific care, and their narrative is as transfixing as any of H. G. Wells's fantasies, but more enthralling, for Ward and Brownlee have real power to prognosticate. This is a book that makes one shiver, but also inspires one to wonder how humanity (if we survive in the short term) will fare in the more distant future."—Oliver Sacks
"You'll take much less for granted after reading The Life and Death of Planet Earth . . . The conclusion is stunning."—Associated Press
"I have written three biographies and read many others, but who would have thought of a biography of planet Earth and its lifeforms? Ward and Brownlee have introduced the emerging science of astrobiology as a field that is important, exciting, and fun. The different scenarios for the end of life on Earth are provocative; while we cannot prevent some possibilities, the good news is that we can prevent others."—David H. Levy, discoverer of twenty-one comets, including Shoemaker-Levy 9
"This is a beautifully written, provocative book, exploring the long-term future of planet Earth in ways that have never been probed before."—David Morrison, NASA Ames Research Center
"The science of astrobiology attempts to answer some of the big questions that have long engaged the imagination of the human race. In this fascinating follow-up to Rare Earth, geologist/zoologist Ward and astronomer Brownlee, both of the University of Washington, draw an analogy between the planet's development and the human cycles of birth, growth, maturity, and death. They explain the Earth's natural aging process over eons by looking at changes in land formations, oceans, climates, plant and animal life, and the stars . . . The authors effectively communicate their knowledge and sense of wonder while making the scientific evidence clear to readers of even limited science backgrounds. Thought-provoking and philosophical questions throughout ensure that this work never reads like a textbook."—Denise Hamilton, Franklin Pierce College Library, New Hampshire, Library Journal
"The strange attraction we have to apocalyptic stories, whether told by seers or scientists, stokes this compellingly grim scenario of terra firma's fate. After a new ice age destroys human civilization in the geological near term, a reassembly of the continents, combined with a brightening sun, inexorably extinguishes plant and animal life in about 250 million years. A few billion years on, the sterilized planet vaporizes as it spirals into a red giant. How science can confidently prophesy doomsday emerges in the authors' explanation of what makes Earth a habitable cosmic oasis in the first place. Brownlee, a geologist, and Ward, an astronomer, zero in on the processes, biological and geological, that cycle the elements carbon and oxygen through the atmosphere. Elaborating on the evide
Science has worked hard to piece together the story of the evolution of our world up to this point, but only recently have we developed the understanding and the tools to describe the entire life cycle of our planet. Peter D. Ward and Donald Brownlee, a geologist and an astronomer respectively, are in the vanguard of the new field of astrobiology. Combining their knowledge of how the critical sustaining systems of our planet evolve through time with their understanding of how stars and solar systems grow and change throughout their own life cycles, the authors tell the story of the second half of Earth’s life. In this masterful melding of groundbreaking research and captivating, eloquent science writing, Ward and Brownlee provide a comprehensive portrait of Earth’s life cycle that allows us to understand and appreciate how the planet sustains itself today, and offers us a glimpse of our place in the cosmic order.
Peter Ward, along with Don Brownlee, is the author of the acclaimed and bestselling Rare Earth. Ward is a professor of geological science and zoology at the University of Washington and the author of nine other books, including Future Evolution, The Call of Distant Mammoths, and The End of Evolution, which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.
Don Brownlee is a professor of astronomy at the University of Washington; currently he is leading NASA's Stardust mission.
Imagine our planet far into the future, Carl Sagan's "pale blue dot" reduced to a reddish-brown husk, a mere shell of its former self. It seems like the stuff of science fiction novels, but it is the reality of science today. We are at a unique moment in our history—Earth's midlife—a point at which science has given us the capability to examine the birth of our planet as well as the forces that will bring about its eventual death. Scientists are finally beginning to understand the cycles that make Earth work and to write, for the first time, a biography of our planet. This revolution in thinking, which finds its voice in this book, is as dramatic, in its own way, as the discovery of Earth revolving around the sun.
Peter D. Ward and Donald Brownlee—a paleontologist and an astronomer, respectively—are helping to bring this groundbreaking work to a popular audience. Vanguards of a new field called astrobiology (the science of how planets and organisms live and die), Ward and Brownlee combine the discoveries of astronomers, Earth scientists, and those in other scientific disciplines. Astronomers are well-poised to study the end of our world, since they have studied the end of other worlds, while paleontologists can tell us about "worlds" that have already ended on our planet, such as the death of dinosaurs and other signposts in the rock and fossil record.
Ward and Brownlee present a comprehensive portrait of Earth's ultimate fate, allowing us to understand and appreciate how our planet sustains itself, and offer a glimpse at our place in the cosmic order. As they depict the process of planetary evolution, they peer deep into the future destiny of Earth, showing us that we are living near or shortly after Earth's biological peak. Eventually, the process of planetary evolution will reverse itself; life as we know it will subside until only the simplest forms remain. In time they, too, will disappear. The oceans will evaporate, the atmosphere will degrade, and as the sun slowly expands, Earth will eventually meet a fiery end.
Combining groundbreaking research with lucid, eloquent writing, this book offers fresh and realistic insight into the true nature if our world and how we should best steward our planet for the long-term benefit of our species.
"A fascinating glimpse of the possible ends of the world examined through the emerging science of astrobiology."—Seattle Post-Intelligencer
"Riveting . . . The Life and Death of Planet Earth is a gripping tale of modern scientific investigation that underlies the insights produced when scientific disciplines cooperate."—New Scientist
"A fascinating glimpse of the possible ends of the world examined through the emerging science of astrobiology."—Seattle Post-Intelligencer
"This is the first real biography of the Earth—not only a brilliant portrait of the emergence and evolution of life on this planet, but a vivid and frightening look at Earth's remote future. Peter Ward and Donald Brownlee combine storytelling power with extreme scientific care, and their narrative is as transfixing as any of H. G. Wells's fantasies, but more enthralling, for Ward and Brownlee have real power to prognosticate. This is a book that makes one shiver, but also inspires one to wonder how humanity (if we survive in the short term) will fare in the more distant future."—Oliver Sacks
"You'll take much less for granted after reading The Life and Death of Planet Earth . . . The conclusion is stunning."—Associated Press
"I have written three biographies and read many others, but who would have thought of a biography of planet Earth and its lifeforms? Ward and Brownlee have introduced the emerging science of astrobiology as a field that is important, exciting, and fun. The different scenarios for the end of life on Earth are provocative; while we cannot prevent some possibilities, the good news is that we can prevent others."—David H. Levy, discoverer of twenty-one comets, including Shoemaker-Levy 9
"This is a beautifully written, provocative book, exploring the long-term future of planet Earth in ways that have never been probed before."—David Morrison, NASA Ames Research Center
"The science of astrobiology attempts to answer some of the big questions that have long engaged the imagination of the human race. In this fascinating follow-up to Rare Earth, geologist/zoologist Ward and astronomer Brownlee, both of the University of Washington, draw an analogy between the planet's development and the human cycles of birth, growth, maturity, and death. They explain the Earth's natural aging process over eons by looking at changes in land formations, oceans, climates, plant and animal life, and the stars . . . The authors effectively communicate their knowledge and sense of wonder while making the scientific evidence clear to readers of even limited science backgrounds. Thought-provoking and philosophical questions throughout ensure that this work never reads like a textbook."—Denise Hamilton, Franklin Pierce College Library, New Hampshire, Library Journal
"The strange attraction we have to apocalyptic stories, whether told by seers or scientists, stokes this compellingly grim scenario of terra firma's fate. After a new ice age destroys human civilization in the geological near term, a reassembly of the continents, combined with a brightening sun, inexorably extinguishes plant and animal life in about 250 million years. A few billion years on, the sterilized planet vaporizes as it spirals into a red giant. How science can confidently prophesy doomsday emerges in the authors' explanation of what makes Earth a habitable cosmic oasis in the first place. Brownlee, a geologist, and Ward, an astronomer, zero in on the processes, biological and geological, that cycle the elements carbon and oxygen through the atmosphere. Elaborating on the evide
作者簡介
Peter D. Ward and Donald Brownlee are the co-authors of the acclaimed and bestselling Rare Earth. Ward is a professor of geological science and zoology at the University of Washington and the author of nine other books, including Future Evolution, The Call of Distant Mammoths, and The End of Evolution, which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Brownlee is a professor of astronomy at the University of Washington.
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