02002cam a2200337 4500 1387438469 TxAuBib 20240709120000.0 240201s2024||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u 2023038723 9780593133972 0593133978 (OCoLC)1419797352 TxAuBib Jabr, Ferris, author. Becoming Earth : how our planet came to life / Ferris Jabr. First edition. New York : Random House, [2024] xxiii, 269 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (mostly color) ; 25 cm. Includes bibliographical references (pages 241-254) and index. "The notion of a living world is one of humanity's oldest beliefs. Though scorned by scientists in the sixties and seventies, the facts supporting this concept have now become tenets of modern Earth system science, a relatively young field that studies the living and nonliving components of the planet as an integrated whole. Life did not evolve passively in response to its environment, as scientists have long assumed. Instead, it evolved with Earth, shaping its climate and terrain at every scale, one part in a great orchestra, in which non-living elements-the air, rocks, and water-are the instruments that life, in its multitudes, has emerged to play. We see how microorganisms participate in many geological processes, producing new minerals and converting rock from one state to another; some scientists think they played a crucial role in forming the continents."-- Provided by publisher. 20240709. Life (Biology.) Evolution (Biology.) Life Origin. Environment Ecology. Environmental sciences. Geology. Natural disasters. Climate Change.