Life : A Natural History of the First Four Billion Years of Life on Earth

Rating:
Summary: Life: A Natural History of the First Four Billion Years....
Review: How can someone summarize the first four billion years of life on Earth in just fewer than four hundred pages? Through his personal expeditions, trials and tribulations, discovery and knowledge, Richard Fortey was able to convey the Earth's life history.

The beginning of the book starts out with Fortey's experiences on a geological expedition in Spits Bergen and then on to Australia and England. He writes about his experiences and emotions as he uncovers parts of history that had never been discovered before. Through his discoveries, he goes through what it is to be a Geologist and the different steps you take. Though this is science, Forty believes that science is never free of human emotions and adds every human touch he can to make the book more interesting and relatable to the person. There is not a single paragraph that does not contain some form of a metaphor, relating the Earths history with an English book touch.

With conflicting and supporting ideas throughout the book, Fortey never forgets to either give credit or confront an idea from a different scientist. This is a good book for someone who is not completely familiar with Geology and the course of the Earth's history to learn about the history of the Earth. It is written like an English navel, but contains all of the contents of a science and history book. I felt that the metaphors were just eluding the reader from the history and slowing the learning process. Though, I understand his metaphors and human accounts, such as relating dinosaurs to Fantasia the Disney movie to his wife sowing using modified characteristics as the early humans did. I liked how he compared and used examples that everyone could relate to, to convey the Earth and its inhabitant's history. But this book was well written and explaining the ideas, concepts and thoroughly.

Rating:
Summary: Life: A Natural History of the First Four Billion Years....
Review: How can someone summarize the first four billion years of life on Earth in just fewer than four hundred pages? Through his personal expeditions, trials and tribulations, discovery and knowledge, Richard Fortey was able to convey the Earth's life history.

The beginning of the book starts out with Fortey's experiences on a geological expedition in Spits Bergen and then on to Australia and England. He writes about his experiences and emotions as he uncovers parts of history that had never been discovered before. Through his discoveries, he goes through what it is to be a Geologist and the different steps you take. Though this is science, Forty believes that science is never free of human emotions and adds every human touch he can to make the book more interesting and relatable to the person. There is not a single paragraph that does not contain some form of a metaphor, relating the Earths history with an English book touch.

With conflicting and supporting ideas throughout the book, Fortey never forgets to either give credit or confront an idea from a different scientist. This is a good book for someone who is not completely familiar with Geology and the course of the Earth's history to learn about the history of the Earth. It is written like an English navel, but contains all of the contents of a science and history book. I felt that the metaphors were just eluding the reader from the history and slowing the learning process. Though, I understand his metaphors and human accounts, such as relating dinosaurs to Fantasia the Disney movie to his wife sowing using modified characteristics as the early humans did. I liked how he compared and used examples that everyone could relate to, to convey the Earth and its inhabitant's history. But this book was well written and explaining the ideas, concepts and thoroughly.

Rating:
Summary: where are the charts?
Review: I am only one third the way through this book, and I am starting to get lost. Like Tolstoy's War and Peace it is a great story, but needs a list of characters and their order of appearance - there needs to be more timelines, more diagrams showing clearly where we are, where we are going, what the fossils looks like. I tend to fault the editor/publisher for skimping on the artwork, but Fortey is such a good writer that his effort was worth it. Good current update on the precambrian life forms (the bulk of what I have read). Like many science writers, however, Fortey tends to throw in too many literary illusions that may demonstrate his wide reading in the liberal arts, but which add nothing in clarity.(Ridley is better) But it remains one of the more worthwhile efforts outside a good textbook, and I look forward to finishing it. (Anyone suggest any better books on the same material?)

Rating:
Summary: Good and entertaining
Review: I believe Richard Fortey did a really good job with this book. It is educational and entertaining. The only problem, I believe is that the task of writing the natural history of the first four billion years of life on earth is huge. Richard Fortey is unquestionably an authority, but maybe a one author quest for such an issue is not just (though I insist that definitively he did a great job). There were some interesting things skipped through the history of life as it is told by Fortey and he relies mostly on Paleontology. I was tempted to give this book 5 stars, but this kept bothering me. Fortey shares some anecdotes as a student and some of his trips, that is something I particularly liked, this helped making the reading more bearable and entertaining.

Rating:
Summary: A great book but still the queries persist
Review: I came to this book after reading 'Trilobite' which I enjoyed immensely and learnt so much from (if not to actually love trilobites as Mr Fortey seems to). 'Life' is vast in its perspective - it is geological and astronomical as well as palaeontological. Perhaps it suffers from this - it is just too much of a mouthful, especially when Mr Fortey adds those delightful personal and literary allusions. I am all in favour of this humanising of science particularly in books that are not intended to be texts, but are nevetheless educational.

There are parts of this book that I found slow and unconvincing, but this might be because our knowledge is deficient or confused in these areas - like when life first ventured onto dry land. But maybe this is exactly where Mr Fortey could have made the story more exciting, more questioning.

Perhaps I missed it, but it seemed to me that there was little reference to the breakup of Pangaea/Gondwanaland - both of which are well described early in the book. Australians are aware of the impact of the creation of Bass Strait separating mainland Australia from Tasmania. After this happened (but well before European colonisation) there was second (at least second) wave of immigrants (presumably now immersed in the Aboriginal population, but it is possible they displaced the earlier immigrants) and these people brought with them dingoes - the first dogs on the continent. Because these new invaders did not reach Tasmania (or at least didn't take their dogs) the island state kept some of its native fauna - the Tasmanian tiger (thylacine) which didn't disappear until Europeans hunted it to extinction, and the Tasmanian devil which thrives today - but these are gone from the mainland because of the impact of the native dogs. So changes in geography certainly effect life. And yet this is not discussed much in the book.

And then we come to the extinction of the dinosaurs. We all know too much about this. We all have prejudices and opinions. I loved the way Mr Fortey approached it from film impressions - 'Fantasia' and 'Jurassic Park' - comparing the way we view dinoaurs as time passes and scholarship improves. But here are some questions that no-one has ever considered for me. Perhaps one day a palaeontologist-writer will venture here? Perhaps you have your pet questions too?

1. It is stated that a world-wide iridium-rich ash is deposited as a result of the K-T boundary impact. But how much iridium would the object have to be carrying to do this? And why do meteors, asteroids etc have this iridium anyway? Could it be that the planet was impacted by a cloud of iridium that has left a covering on other solar objects? I have read some astronomical books that describe the formation of the elements in supernova, but nowhere has iridium been especially mentioned. Perhaps there is a clue to something here.

2. I understand that some animals/plants actually did survive the K-T boundary event; little furry mammals that were to evolve even into ourselves, but also larger reptiles such as crocodiles and turtles. If we forget the animals rendered extinct for a moment, perhaps a study of the survivors will give us some further insights. How did they get through the event when so many others - not individuals, but species - died.

This is a very colourful, educative and entertaining read. I like Mr Fortey's style very much and recommend it wholeheartedly for all those who are not looking for a text book.

Rating:
Summary: A great book but still the queries persist
Review: I came to this book after reading 'Trilobite' which I enjoyed immensely and learnt so much from (if not to actually love trilobites as Mr Fortey seems to). 'Life' is vast in its perspective - it is geological and astronomical as well as palaeontological. Perhaps it suffers from this - it is just too much of a mouthful, especially when Mr Fortey adds those delightful personal and literary allusions. I am all in favour of this humanising of science particularly in books that are not intended to be texts, but are nevetheless educational.

There are parts of this book that I found slow and unconvincing, but this might be because our knowledge is deficient or confused in these areas - like when life first ventured onto dry land. But maybe this is exactly where Mr Fortey could have made the story more exciting, more questioning.

Perhaps I missed it, but it seemed to me that there was little reference to the breakup of Pangaea/Gondwanaland - both of which are well described early in the book. Australians are aware of the impact of the creation of Bass Strait separating mainland Australia from Tasmania. After this happened (but well before European colonisation) there was second (at least second) wave of immigrants (presumably now immersed in the Aboriginal population, but it is possible they displaced the earlier immigrants) and these people brought with them dingoes - the first dogs on the continent. Because these new invaders did not reach Tasmania (or at least didn't take their dogs) the island state kept some of its native fauna - the Tasmanian tiger (thylacine) which didn't disappear until Europeans hunted it to extinction, and the Tasmanian devil which thrives today - but these are gone from the mainland because of the impact of the native dogs. So changes in geography certainly effect life. And yet this is not discussed much in the book.

And then we come to the extinction of the dinosaurs. We all know too much about this. We all have prejudices and opinions. I loved the way Mr Fortey approached it from film impressions - 'Fantasia' and 'Jurassic Park' - comparing the way we view dinoaurs as time passes and scholarship improves. But here are some questions that no-one has ever considered for me. Perhaps one day a palaeontologist-writer will venture here? Perhaps you have your pet questions too?

1. It is stated that a world-wide iridium-rich ash is deposited as a result of the K-T boundary impact. But how much iridium would the object have to be carrying to do this? And why do meteors, asteroids etc have this iridium anyway? Could it be that the planet was impacted by a cloud of iridium that has left a covering on other solar objects? I have read some astronomical books that describe the formation of the elements in supernova, but nowhere has iridium been especially mentioned. Perhaps there is a clue to something here.

2. I understand that some animals/plants actually did survive the K-T boundary event; little furry mammals that were to evolve even into ourselves, but also larger reptiles such as crocodiles and turtles. If we forget the animals rendered extinct for a moment, perhaps a study of the survivors will give us some further insights. How did they get through the event when so many others - not individuals, but species - died.

This is a very colourful, educative and entertaining read. I like Mr Fortey's style very much and recommend it wholeheartedly for all those who are not looking for a text book.

Rating:
Summary: Making the past accessible
Review: I have to admit that I bought this book at least in part out of a sense of duty. After all, one should have some idea about the history of life on Earth. But now I am getting to work late because I wanted to read just one more chapter in the morning after I got up. "Life" is extremely well written, and rather than just being a list of geological periods with fact sheets, it actually tells a story with many aspects, from the way geology influenced biology, to the constancy of eco-systems, even as the players were being replaced, to finally the way the geological past still influences us today in the form of fossil fuels and feuds among fossilists, among other things. I think it is the later aspect that makes the book so unique. Fortey is very skillful in making the past relevant for us today. He vividly describes the things we would see at a beach of the Silurian, but he also talks about the places where we can find today the traces and fossils left by those plants and animals from hundreds of million years ago. Aside from all that, he also shows the scientists involved in finding out about these things, and all their petty fights and mistakes, as well as their enthusiasm, their sense of wonder, and their insights.

If there is one drawback, it's the weakness of the book when it comes to biochemistry and molecular biology. For example, Fortey doesn't cover the new results about the developmental biology of insect wings that also throw light at their evolution, and his description of the evolution of photosynthesis jumps straight from zero to Chlorobium, without much inbetween. Same with the Archea - there is a lot more weirdness going on there than Fortey lets on. But this obviously this is nit-picking in the extreme - most people wouldn't notice that the author is cutting some corners, and these minor details certainly aren't necessary if you want to squeeze some 4 billion years into 400 pages.

All in all it is a wonderful book that captivates the reader's attention, and it certainly makes you understand why Fortey stuck to the field even after being trapped on a 2 month trip to Spitzbergen in a tent with a disgruntled graduate student. I would rate it among the top 3 science books I read this year.

Rating:
Summary: This book will create many new fossil hunters.
Review: I read Fortey's book while sitting on the beach during vacation. What better place to contemplate the history of life? I especially enjoyed Fortey's translation of dry scientific evidence into descriptions of what it would be like to stand on a Cambrian seashore or be deep within a Carboniferous forest. Fortey's descriptions of the fractiousness of the scientific community during paradigm shifts makes interesting reading, as does his reminders that the state of life is as much the result of chance as natural selection. For future editions, I recommend including a chart showing the geological / palaeontological timelime to keep the reader on track. Overall a good read; it will create many new fossil hunters.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointingly Off Target
Review: I wanted to love this book--although not a scientist, I have been interested in the biological sciences and particularly paleontology all my life. But the book evolved along a divergent path from the expectations raised by the subtitle: A Natural History of the First Four Billion Years of Life on Earth. Like the Irish elk's enormous antlers, fully a third (at least) of the book takes a detrimental tangent.

In an already slim 322 pages, Fortey constantly veers off track into his own personal experiences or historical sketches of paleontological personalities. While his writing style makes this material fairly engaging, it is not at all to the point of the history of life. There is a difference between the history of life and the history of the discovery of that knowledge.

This approach even extends to the 88 illustrations--of which 14 are of famous scientists or other irrelevancies, including a photograph of a hotel, one of slot machines, and one of Fortey's frozen underwear. Fortey is fully conscious of this approach--at one point he says, "The change from water to land, this unscrambling of history I have described, is not merely about the discovery of facts; it is also an anthropological study, every bit as human as the intention of a novel." I would argue that the change from water to land isn't at all about the discovery of facts, but about the facts themselves--the discovery of facts is unimportant except as a background on how to judge the quality of those facts, which a popularization such as this seldom concerns itself.

Later, on the same page, Fortey describes the results of an application of X-rays to Devonian Shale: "...starfish petrified with their minutest details conserved; sea lilies with their most delicate, feathery pinnules stretched out to gather seafood, more graceful than a peacock feather; and, just as showy, trilobites with limbs and antennae still scrabbling; and other, strange arthropods that had no record since the Burgess Shale of the Cambrian." How I wish that I could have read about the lives of these organisms rather than about the professional spats between cladists and non-cladists; how I wish that I could have seen a photograph of these creatures rather than one of Lady Smith Woodward's embroidered tablecloth.

Ultimately I did not learn much about the development of life on Earth; and when a non-scientist can say that about a book by a senior paleontologist at London's Natural History Museum, that is a very grim recommendation indeed.

Rating:
Summary: great story
Review: If you want to be swept off your feet by the great story that is life on earth, this is the book to read. Fortey is a scientist with the relatively rare gift of making not only scientific facts but also the romance of science accesible to the layperson. His tone is conversational, his language clear and his style humourous. He starts off with an entertaining anecdotal chapter on how he himself became involved in paleonthology and from there jumps back some 4 billion years, to when it all began. I thoroughly enjoyed immersing myself in this book. The only criticism is that the somewhat crummy black and white photographs are rather meagre as illustrations. I would have liked more and better pictures of all the wondrous life forms that Fortey describes with so much panache. Still, in spite of this the book is worth five stars to me.