Shaped by life

摘要

Earth has life written all over it: in its sediments and soils, its atmosphere and its oceans. Without life, the planet s chemical state, energy balance and history cannot be understood. In Revolutions That Made the Earth, Earth-systems scientists Tim Lenton and Andrew Watson describe the shaping of our planet by life, combining evolutionary biology and geochemistry to do so. Lenton and Watson relate how life forms have co-evolved with the planet's environment over billions of years, and suggest explanations for some of the mysteries in the geological record.