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The Story of Earth
- The First 4.5 Billion Years, from Stardust to Living Planet
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
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Publisher's summary
Earth evolves. From first atom to molecule, mineral to magma, granite crust to single cell to verdant living landscape, ours is a planet constantly in flux. In this radical new approach to Earth’s biography, senior Carnegie Institution researcher and national best-selling author Robert M. Hazen reveals how the co-evolution of the geosphere and biosphere - of rocks and living matter - has shaped our planet into the only one of its kind in the Solar System, if not the entire cosmos.
With an astrobiologist’s imagination, a historian’s perspective, and a naturalist’s passion for the ground beneath our feet, Hazen explains how changes on an atomic level translate into dramatic shifts in Earth’s makeup over its 4.567 billion year existence. He calls upon a flurry of recent discoveries to portray our planet’s many iterations in vivid detail - from its fast-rotating infancy when the Sun rose every 5 hours and the Moon filled 250 times more sky than it does now, to its sea-bathed youth, before the first continents arose; from the Great Oxidation Event that turned the land red, to the globe-altering volcanism that may have been the true killer of the dinosaurs. Through Hazen’s theory of “co-evolution,” we learn how reactions between organic molecules and rock crystals may have generated Earth’s first organisms, which in turn are responsible for more than two-thirds of the mineral varieties on the planet - thousands of different kinds of crystals that could not exist in a nonliving world.
The Story of Earth is also the story of the pioneering men and women behind the sciences. Listeners will meet black-market meteorite hawkers of the Sahara Desert, the gun-toting Feds who guarded the Apollo missions’ lunar dust, and the World War II Navy officer whose super-pressurized “bomb” - recycled from military hardware - first simulated the molten rock of Earth’s mantle. As a mentor to a new generation of scientists, Hazen introduces the intrepid young explorers whose dispatches from Earth’s harshest landscapes will revolutionize geology.
Celebrated by The New York Times for writing “with wonderful clarity about science . . . that effortlessly teaches as it zips along,” Hazen proves a brilliant and entertaining guide on this grand tour of our planet inside and out. Lucid, controversial, and intellectually bracing, The Story of Earth is popular science of the highest order.
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The Story of the Earth in 25 Rocks tells the fascinating stories behind the discoveries that shook the foundations of geology. In 25 chapters, Donald R. Prothero recounts the scientific detective work that shaped our understanding of geology, from the unearthing of exemplary specimens to tectonic shifts in how we view the inner workings of our planet.
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More about scientists than science
- By Aunt Vee on 06-14-20
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A Most Improbable Journey
- A Big History of Our Planet and Ourselves
- By: Walter Alvarez
- Narrated by: Adam Verner
- Length: 6 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Big History, the field that studies the entire known past of our universe to give context to human existence, has so far been the domain of historians. Geologist Walter Alvarez - best known for his Impact Theory explaining dinosaur extinction - makes a compelling case for a new, science-first approach to Big History.
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Learned so much
- By Niki on 12-09-18
By: Walter Alvarez
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A Short History of Nearly Everything
- By: Bill Bryson
- Narrated by: Richard Matthews
- Length: 18 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Bill Bryson has been an enormously popular author both for his travel books and for his books on the English language. Now, this beloved comic genius turns his attention to science. Although he doesn't know anything about the subject (at first), he is eager to learn, and takes information that he gets from the world's leading experts and explains it to us in a way that makes it exciting and relevant.
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The Only Book I reread imediatley after reading
- By Andrew on 11-09-09
By: Bill Bryson
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The Equations of Life
- How Physics Shapes Evolution
- By: Charles S. Cockell
- Narrated by: Ian Porter
- Length: 11 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Equations of Life, biologist Charles S. Cockell makes the forceful argument that the laws of physics narrowly constrain how life can evolve, making evolution's outcomes predictable. If we were to find something very much like a lady bug eating something very much like an aphid on a distant planet, we shouldn't be surprised. The forms of life are guided by a limited set of rules, and, as a result, there is a narrow set of solutions to the challenges of existence.
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Too many equations, not enough insights
- By Alec Drumm on 09-24-18
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Catching Stardust
- Comets, Asteroids and the Birth of the Solar System
- By: Natalie Starkey
- Narrated by: Alison Campbell
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Icy, rocky, sometimes dusty, always mysterious – comets and asteroids are among the Solar System's very oldest inhabitants, formed within a swirling cloud of gas and dust in the area of space that eventually hosted the Sun and its planets. Locked within each of these extra-terrestrial objects is the 4.6-billion-year wisdom of Solar System events, and by studying them at close quarters using spacecraft we can coerce them into revealing their closely-guarded secrets. This offers us the chance to answer some fundamental questions about our planet and its inhabitants.
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Chasing star stuff always results in technological advances
- By Richard Duede on 12-30-18
By: Natalie Starkey
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Origin Story
- A Big History of Everything
- By: David Christian
- Narrated by: Jamie Jackson
- Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Most historians study the smallest slivers of time, emphasizing specific dates, individuals, and documents. But what would it look like to study the whole of history, from the big bang through the present day - and even into the remote future? How would looking at the full span of time change the way we perceive the universe, the earth, and our very existence? These were the questions David Christian set out to answer when he created the field of "Big History", the most exciting new approach to understanding where we have been, where we are, and where we are going.
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A brilliant achievement, must read/listen
- By 11104 on 09-05-18
By: David Christian
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Life's Engines
- How Microbes Made Earth Habitable
- By: Paul G. Falkowski
- Narrated by: Nick Sullivan
- Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Paul Falkowski looks "under the hood" of microbes to find the engines of life, the actual working parts that do the biochemical heavy lifting for every living organism on Earth. With insight and humor, he explains how these miniature engines are built - and how they have been appropriated by and assembled like Lego sets within every creature that walks, swims, or flies. Falkowski shows how evolution works to maintain this core machinery of life, and how we and other animals are veritable conglomerations of microbes.
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Best Science Book Ever Written. Period.
- By serine on 07-28-15
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When Humans Nearly Vanished
- The Catastrophic Explosion of the Toba Volcano
- By: Donald R. Prothero
- Narrated by: Qarie Marshall
- Length: 6 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Some 73,000 years ago, the Mount Toba supervolcano in toda's Indonesia erupted, releasing the energy of a million tons of explosives. So much ash and debris was injected into the stratosphere that it partially blocked the sun's radiation and caused global temperatures to drop for a decade. In this book, Donald R. Prothero presents the controversial argument that the Toba catastrophe nearly wiped out the human race, leaving only about a thousand to ten thousand breeding pairs of humans worldwide.
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A very special book
- By Scott Fitzsimmons on 02-02-19
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Forces of Nature
- By: Professor Brian Cox, Andrew Cohen
- Narrated by: Samuel West
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Professor Brian Cox uncovers some of the most extraordinary natural events on Earth and in the universe and beyond. From the immensity of the universe and the roundness of Earth to the form of every single snowflake, the forces of nature shape everything we see. Pushed to extremes, the results are astonishing. In seeking to understand the everyday world, the colours, structure, behaviour and history of our home, we develop the knowledge and techniques necessary to step beyond the everyday.
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Complicated in its simplicity
- By Philomath on 06-13-17
By: Professor Brian Cox, and others
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When Life Nearly Died
- The Greatest Mass Extinction of All Time
- By: Michael J. Benton
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 11 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Today it is common knowledge that the dinosaurs were wiped out by a meteorite impact 65 million years ago that killed half of all species then living. It is far less widely understood that a much greater catastrophe took place at the end of the Permian period 251 million years ago: at least 90 percent of life on earth was destroyed. When Life Nearly Died documents not only what happened during this gigantic mass extinction, but also the recent renewal of the idea of catastrophism.
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Obscurity to Enlightenment - A Mystery Revealed
- By Dipam on 03-18-21
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Life on the Edge
- The Coming of Age of Quantum Biology
- By: Johnjoe McFadden, Jim Al-Khalili
- Narrated by: Pete Cross
- Length: 12 hrs and 40 mins
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Life is the most extraordinary phenomenon in the known universe; but how did it come to be? Even in an age of cloning and artificial biology, the remarkable truth remains: Nobody has ever made anything living entirely out of dead material. Life remains the only way to make life. Are we still missing a vital ingredient in its creation?
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More woo than new
- By Gary on 09-09-15
By: Johnjoe McFadden, and others
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A Brief Welcome to the Universe
- A Pocket-Sized Tour
- By: Neil deGrasse Tyson, Michael A. Strauss, J. Richard Gott
- Narrated by: Neil Hellegers
- Length: 4 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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A Brief Welcome to the Universe offers a breathtaking tour of the cosmos, from planets, stars, and galaxies to black holes and time loops. Best-selling authors and acclaimed astrophysicists Neil deGrasse Tyson, Michael A. Strauss, and J. Richard Gott take listeners on an unforgettable journey of exploration to reveal how our universe actually works. Propelling you from our home solar system to the outermost frontiers of space, this book builds your cosmic insight and perspective through a marvelously entertaining narrative.
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A brief welcome for everyone
- By Ashley F on 08-24-24
By: Neil deGrasse Tyson, and others
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The Disappearing Spoon
- And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements
- By: Sam Kean
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins
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Reporter Sam Kean reveals the periodic table as it’s never been seen before. Not only is it one of man's crowning scientific achievements, it's also a treasure trove of stories of passion, adventure, betrayal, and obsession. The infectious tales and astounding details in The Disappearing Spoon follow carbon, neon, silicon, and gold as they play out their parts in human history, finance, mythology, war, the arts, poison, and the lives of the (frequently) mad scientists who discovered them.
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Great Book, Great Narration, But...
- By Henny Button on 09-18-10
By: Sam Kean
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The theory of evolution unites the past, present, and future of living things. It puts humanity's place in the universe into necessary perspective. Despite a history of controversy, the evidence for evolution continues to accumulate as a result of many separate strands of incredible scientific sleuthing. In The Story of Evolution in 25 Discoveries, Donald R. Prothero explores the most fascinating breakthroughs in piecing together the evidence for evolution.
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Like the alphabet, the calendar, or the zodiac, the periodic table of the chemical elements has a permanent place in our imagination. But aside from the handful of common ones (iron, carbon, copper, gold), the elements themselves remain wrapped in mystery. We do not know what most of them look like, how they exist in nature, how they got their names, or of what use they are to us.
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In our unique genomes, every one of us carries the story of our species - births, deaths, disease, war, famine, migration, and a lot of sex. But those stories have always been locked away - until now. Who are our ancestors? Where did they come from? Geneticists have suddenly become historians, and the hard evidence in our DNA has completely upended what we thought we knew about ourselves. Acclaimed science writer Adam Rutherford explains exactly how genomics is completely rewriting the human story - from 100,000 years ago to the present.
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I wish this book was in American high schools.
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In Origins, Frank H. T. Rhodes explores the origin and evolution of living things, the changing environments in which they have developed, and the challenges we now face on an increasingly crowded and polluted planet. Rhodes argues that the future well-being of our burgeoning population depends in no small part on our understanding of life's past, its long and slow development, and its intricate interdependencies.
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poorly written overview of evolutionary biology
- By Corvin Rok on 09-06-20
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Origin Story
- A Big History of Everything
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Most historians study the smallest slivers of time, emphasizing specific dates, individuals, and documents. But what would it look like to study the whole of history, from the big bang through the present day - and even into the remote future? How would looking at the full span of time change the way we perceive the universe, the earth, and our very existence? These were the questions David Christian set out to answer when he created the field of "Big History", the most exciting new approach to understanding where we have been, where we are, and where we are going.
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A brilliant achievement, must read/listen
- By 11104 on 09-05-18
By: David Christian
What listeners say about The Story of Earth
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Dr.
- 09-08-12
Narrator spoils the book
Would you be willing to try another one of Walter Dixon’s performances?
No. I'm a geologist and Walter Dixon spoils the book for me with his many mispronunciations of geological terms. One would think he would have researched these words in advance. Examples of botched words include: rhythmites (as in tidal rhythmites), peridotite, and plagioclase. There are many more.
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- Peter Hildebrandt
- 06-30-22
Phenomenal book
I learned so much from this enjoyable work, even though I have worked as an earth science teacher in middle school and at the undergraduate level. We tend to think that the planet needs to be saved and we’re the only ones who can do that. Hazen reminds us that the earth 🌏 will be just fine. Current problems are for us and the plants and animals we share this world with. The time for dealing with that is rapidly vanishing. Earth and life will survive. However we have little idea what its future looks like.
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- Joe
- 03-04-14
Nerdy Geology at its finest?
What did you like best about The Story of Earth? What did you like least?
I liked that the Story of Earth is interesting.....if also boring. It's easy to be intrigued by the (many) things I didn't know about the history of our planet but it's also just as easy to back away from. There was certainly a limit to the amount of detailed knowledge I was willing to quickly accept at a given sitting.
Were the concepts of this book easy to follow, or were they too technical?
Depends. At times I was on board with Hazen but others I got lost in details. I think this has a lot to do with the numbers of it all. Throughout the book, Hazen describes geological facts in terms of a timeline. For me, it became increasingly difficult to keep that timeline straight. In the first place, it's a massive timeline on a scale which the entirety of human history is but a tiny speck at the end, indistinguishable and unimportant. Secondly, 530 millions years ago sounds and feels just as remote as 350 million years ago. The numbers are just so large and the pace of reading so fast that it is no small task to process the wheres and whens of all the different ideas Hazen discusses. On that note, Hazen tends to jump to other eons and for a complete novice like me, this become confusing quickly. I effectively disregarded the detail of age and concentrated on the overall issue Hazen was attempting to explain. In this way, the book became easier to read and easier to process while maintaining the essence of Hazen's narration. I'm sure I missed some details on the way, but my sanity is still intact.
Also, for a listen, I was probably even more handicapped. A visual representation of a number has a different value than a heard number.
Which character – as performed by Walter Dixon – was your favorite?
Mother Earth :)
Did The Story of Earth inspire you to do anything?
Nope.
Any additional comments?
I have rated this 3-stars principally because the subject didn't hold my interest enough. This is just an issue of personal preference. There were definite moments where I was presented ideas that I never heard prior and concepts that were utterly foreign to my preconceptions to the subject. But these moments of surprise, intrigue, and awe were not the majority but were enough to fuel the engine to continue the book until the end. I imagine those more interested in geology, the Earth, or other life/earth science would be more connected to The Story of Earth. As for me, I'm glad I read it but I'm equally glad it's over.
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- Gregory Collier
- 06-07-16
fantastically easy to digest and a real eye opener
written and read in a clear and easy to follow manner. looking forward to another listen someday. the more complex subjects were still presented in a palatable way for laymen such as myself.
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- Daniel Brown
- 11-18-19
Good book but he defeats his own punchline
The author has a wealth of knowledge. This book is an extension of his Symphony in C. Much useful information. He then talks about extreme shifts in ocean levels (+/- 600 feet) based in studying isotopes of oxygen. These shifts have occurred multiple times in the last several million years. While methods may be questioned, if we assume his statements about these ocean levels are accurate, virtually all of these shifts occurred before industrialization. If so, his cautious assertion that current changes in sea level are the results of man’s activity is preposterous. That said, it seems to me we have much more to fear from other earth events like volcanic eruptions which he elegantly describes. Well worth the read despite an academic liberal bent
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- Ivor DeManty
- 02-17-18
Great book. Fascinating. Tough to read.
I enjoyed this book very much. However, it was very difficult to read there's a lot of information in a lot of descriptors that Overwhelm your mind. I found it easier to read it in short, sections of one chapter at a time or even one Subchapter at a time. I also followed up my reading or during my reading with the visual aids such as timelines or maps of the different time eras. overall this was a really good book I enjoyed it and will read it again.
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- Carolyn Strickler
- 07-20-22
A worthy read
A must read/listen! A book all humans need to read and ponder. But will we?
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- Krista
- 01-22-14
Twist on an old story.
A look at the changing Earth from the minerals up. I really enjoyed the book and narration. Haden does a very nice job at tying the chemistry of the inorganic and organic together.
I love science non-fiction whether physics, biology or cosmology- and now geology finally. If you like geology or collecting rocks, this adds to the story of each rock. If you like learning about how the Earth and life began, this brings more detail into focus on the role minerals played and the effect of life on the minerals we see today.
Easy to listen to and follow. I will definitely listen again to absorb even more. Walter Dixon narrated beautifully. I would look for more titles that he has read as well.
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- Joey
- 06-07-17
Earth's history.
Loved it. although I am a huge history buff. I can listen to the narrator while I work, drive, mow the lawn, What ever.
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- Nicmac
- 03-27-15
Documented and researched pretty technical
Very thorough was more technical than I thought from a geological pov, overall very interesting though. It gives a very deep view of risk and life symbiosis
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