Impossible Extinction
Subtitle: Natural Catastrophes and the Supremacy of the Microbial World
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: March 3, 2003
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 192
ISBN-13: 9780521817363
Subjects: Astronomy, Space & Time; Evolution; Extraterrestrial beings; Microbiology (non-medical); Popular science; Microbial ecology; Extinction (Biology); Science; Science/Mathematics; Microbiology; Astronomy - General; Astrophysics & Space Science; Life Sciences - Biology - General; Technology / General; Catastrophes (Geology); Extreme environments
First sentence: Our lives are full of journeys, short ones and long ones, to our neighbors just down the street and our friends and cousins in other countries.
Description: "Impossible Extinction is about a remarkable journey. Every 225 million years the Earth, and all the life on it, completes one revolution around our Milky Way Galaxy. During this journey life is influenced by calamitous changes. Comets and asteroids strike the surface of the Earth, stars explode nearby, enormous volcanoes erupt and, more recently, humans litter the planet with waste. Many animals and plants become extinct during voyage, but humble microbes, simple creatures made of a single cell, survive this journey. This book takes a tour of the microbial world, from the coldest and deepest places on Earth to the hottest and highest, and witnesses some of the most catastrophic events that life can face. This remarkable story explains for the general reader how microbes have survived on Earth for over three billion years."--Jacket.