#733 Andrew Knoll - A Brief History of Earth: Four Billion Years in Eight Chapters
RECORDED ON OCTOBER 28th 2022.
Dr. Andrew Knoll is the Fisher Professor of Natural History at Harvard University. Dr. Knoll’s research focuses on the early evolution of life, Earth’s environmental history, and, especially, the interconnections between the two. For the past decade, he has served on the science team for NASA’s MER mission to Mars. Professor Knoll’s honors include the Walcott Medal and the Mary Clark Thompson Medal of the National Academy of Sciences, the Phi Beta Kappa Book Award in Science (for his 2003 book Life on a Young Planet), the Moore Medal of the Society for Sedimentary Geology, the Paleontological Society Medal, and the Wollaston Medal of the Geological Society of London. Dr. Knoll is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the American Academy of Microbiology. He is the author of A Brief History of Earth: Four Billion Years in Eight Chapters.
In this episode, we focus on A Brief History of Earth. We cover some of the main events in the history of the Earth, including: its formation; the formation of its atmosphere; where water came from; plate tectonics; the origins of life; the rise of oxygen; evolution, from the first unicellular organisms to animals; the colonization of land by plants and animals; the mass extinctions; and the evolution of H. sapiens, and its ecological impact. Finally, we talk about the future of the Earth.
Time Links:
Intro
The formation of the Earth
The formation of its atmosphere
Where water came from
Why does the Earth have plates?
The origins of life
The rise of oxygen
Evolution, from the first unicellular organisms to animals
The colonization of land by plants and animals
The mass extinctions
The evolution of H. sapiens
The human impact on climate, and the Anthropocene
The future of the Earth
Follow Dr. Knoll’s work!
Follow Dr. Knoll’s work:
Faculty page: https://bit.ly/3xylUAl
ResearchGate profile: https://bit.ly/3MWOHnK
A Brief History of Earth: https://amzn.to/3xYm4lV