Stepping Stones: The Making of Our Home World Book

For many, the excellent BBC series Earth Story will have set the scene: Stephen Drury's aim is nothing less than an account, from first principles, of how Earth's geology and biology shape and account for each other. "Interconnection between Earth and life are all pervading," Drury writes. "Whether or not there is a "bio-feedback" to the bowels of the Earth awaits evidence, but it would come as no surprise to discover that there is." Drury's account takes in the very latest theories about the emergence of life, pays due consideration to the important role of cataclysmic events--and in particular asteroid collisions--on Earth's history and concludes by constructing a well-argued economic model for the way human activities interact with the biosphere. For all that Drury attempts to draw critical fire in his introduction (any narrative that threads its way through so many disparate sciences cannot in the end, he claims, be particularly coherent) Drury does successfully co-opt a huge amount of material from statistics, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biochemistry, evolutionary biology, archeology and numerous other disciplines to support his central thesis. Above all, Stepping Stoneshas character. Drury writes with flair, with an acute awareness of what science is and is not for and with a deeply felt passion for his own discipline. Drury has placed geology firmly on the popular map. --Simon IngsRead More