earth sciences

Book review – The Story of Earth’s Climate in 25 Discoveries: How Scientists Found the Connections Between Climate and Life

7-minute read
keywords: earth sciences, history of science, paleoclimatology

This is the fifth instalment in what can unofficially be dubbed the 25 Discoveries series by palaeontologist and geologist Donald R. Prothero. After four previous books on fossils, rocks, dinosaurs, and evolution—I reviewed the last three (mostly) positively—Prothero now turns to palaeoclimatology. A chronology with character, this book takes the reader through 4.5 billion years (Ga) of Earth’s changing climate and its impact on life, while explaining how we know what we know.

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Book review – Mysteries of the Deep: How Seafloor Drilling Expeditions Revolutionized Our Understanding of Earth History

7-minute read
keywords: earth sciences, history of science, oceanography

Many advances in the earth sciences have come from one particular feat of technology and engineering: deep-sea drilling. Or to be more precise, it is the sediment cores thus extracted from the seafloor that have offered a wealth of information. In Mysteries of the Deep, retired geologist James Lawrence Powell gives a very readable whistlestop tour of the many remarkable insights these drilling expeditions have given us. In the process, he provides a microcosm of how science advances and how scientists change their minds, or sometimes fail to, in the face of new evidence.

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Book review – The Gaia Hypothesis: Science on a Pagan Planet

10-minute read
keywords: earth sciences, history of science, philosophy

This is the final part of my four-part review series on the Gaia hypothesis (see also part 1, part 2, and part 3), James Lovelock’s notion that the Earth is a giant self-regulating system that maintains conditions suitable for life on the planet. I selected this book as a counterpart to the hard-science analysis of Tyrrell’s On Gaia (also published in 2013) to take a step back and read about the wider reception of Lovelock’s ideas. As it turns out, professor of philosophy Michael Ruse additionally delves into the historical and philosophical precursors to the notion of Earth as a living planet. An intellectually rigorous if sometimes challenging book, The Gaia Hypothesis gives a very satisfying overview of why Lovelock got the reception he did and, for me, marks Ruse as a notable writer to keep an eye on.

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Book review – On Gaia: A Critical Investigation of the Relationship between Life and Earth

10-minute read
keywords: earth sciences, ecology

The scientist, environmentalist, and futurist James Lovelock is probably best remembered for the Gaia hypothesis: the notion that the Earth is a giant self-regulating system that maintains conditions suitable for life on the planet. It has gained a certain respectability in academic circles over the decades, but how justified is this? In my previous reviews of Lovelock’s original 1979 book Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth and the 1995 follow-up The Ages of Gaia, I was critical of various assumptions and claims expressed therein. At the same time, I am aware that other, more knowledgeable people have worked on this idea for years, so what do I know? In On Gaia, Earth system scientist Toby Tyrrell gives a thorough and dispassionate overview of the scientific evidence and whether it supports Gaia. This, then, is the third of a four-part review series that explores the Gaia hypothesis in greater detail (see also part 1, part 2, and part 4).

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Book review – The Ages of Gaia: A Biography of Our Living Earth

9-minute read
keywords: earth sciences, ecology

James Lovelock, the famous scientist, environmentalist, and futurist, is probably best remembered for the Gaia hypothesis. This is the notion that the Earth is a giant self-regulating system that maintains conditions suitable for life on the planet. In the process of reviewing his first book, Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth, it became clear that that book was a time capsule, its text not updated from the 1979 original. However, Gaia stimulated much criticism, response, and further research. This resulted in The Ages of Gaia, a second book aimed at a more scientific audience. Will it answer some of the questions I was left with after reviewing Gaia? Join me for this second of a four-part review series as I delve deeper into Lovelock’s ideas and how they developed (see also part 1, part 3, and part 4).

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Book review – Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth

9-minute read
keywords: earth sciences, ecology

One year ago today, the famous scientist, environmentalist, and futurist James Lovelock passed away at the age of 103. Amongst his many achievements, he is best known for formulating the Gaia hypothesis: the notion that the Earth is a giant self-regulating system that maintains conditions suitable for life on the planet. I have always been somewhat suspicious of this idea but have simply never gotten around to properly reading up on it. High time to inform myself better and substantiate my so-far thinly-held opinion. Join me for a four-part series of book reviews in which I delve into Lovelock’s classic Gaia; his follow-up The Ages of Gaia; Toby Tyrrell’s critical investigation of its scientific underpinnings, On Gaia; and Michael Ruse’s wider analysis of its reception and historical antecedents, The Gaia Hypothesis.

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Book review – When the Sahara Was Green: How Our Greatest Desert Came to Be

7-minute read
keywords: environmental history, geomorphology, paleoclimatology

When seeing the world through a deep-time lens, no landscape feature is permanent. The Sahara, for example, “only” came into existence some 7 million years ago. In that time, it has not always been the parched desert it is now but has been green and verdant numerous times, crisscrossed by rivers and home to hippos, turtles, fish and other animals and plants typical of wetter climes. In this book, retired earth scientist Martin Williams draws on a long lifetime of research and desert expeditions to give a very accessible introduction to the surprisingly complex geography of the Sahara, answering some very basic questions.

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Book review – The Art and Science of the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

8-minute read
keywords: geology, history of science, paleontology

The Crystal Palace Dinosaurs are probably one of London’s better-kept secrets. This unlikely collection of life-size outdoor sculptures of some 30 prehistoric creatures—including dinosaurs, marine reptiles, and extinct mammals—has survived in the city’s southeast for almost 170 years. They have been lampooned for being terribly outdated in light of what we know today. But that does them no justice. In this gorgeously illustrated book, palaeontologist and palaeoartist Mark Witton has teamed up with Ellinor Michel, an evolutionary biologist and chair and co-founder of the Friends of the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs charity. Together, they chart the full story of the inception, planning, construction, reception, and survival of the sculptures. Foremost, it shows how cutting-edge they were back then, why they still matter today, and why they need our help.

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Book review – The Greywacke: How a Priest, a Soldier and a Schoolteacher Uncovered 300 Million Years of History

7-minute read
keywords: geology, history of science

Take a look at the geological time scale[1]. Thanks to the dinosaurs, we have all heard of the Cretaceous, Jurassic, and Triassic. However, going back in time from the Triassic, the Phanerozoic Eon in which we live today stretches another 289 million years into the past; from the Permian that ended ~252 million years ago, through the Carboniferous, Devonian, Silurian, Ordovician, to the Cambrian that started ~539 million years ago. In The Greywacke, avocational geologist Nick Davidson tells the story of how those geological periods got their names and transports the reader back to the heydays of Victorian geology when three men would make Britain’s rocks the centre of international attention. In so doing, he unlocks for a general audience an episode in the history of geology that was so far consigned to more technical literature.

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Book review – Super Volcanoes: What They Reveal about Earth and the Worlds Beyond

6-minute read
keywords: earth sciences, popular science, volcanology

If volcanoes make you giddy, then this is the book for you. Robin George Andrews is that rare hybrid of the scientist–journalist: a volcanologist who decided to focus on science communication after completing his PhD. Super Volcanoes combines scientific exactitude with engaging writing and is a tour of some exceptional volcanoes on Earth and elsewhere in the Solar System. Andrews starts it with an unabashedly enthusiastic mission statement: “I want you to feel unbridled glee as these stories sink in and an indelible grin flashes across your face as you think: holy crap, that’s crazy!” (p. xxi). For me, he nailed it and I found this an incredibly satisfying read.

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