The Energy of SpeciesOlivia JudsonLabel: John Murray Publishers LtdDescription: Where did we come from? What does it mean to be 'alive'? And what is our place in the cosmos?In her twenty-year journey to answer these questions Olivia Judson has travelled to all seven continents and dived in several seas; she has made mental journeys to other worlds - the Moon Venus Mars; she has travelled back in time haunted the rock collections of natural history museums read scores of books and thousands of papers. The Co-Creation proposes a radical new way of understanding life on Earth: not as a story written in genes and DNA but as one driven by energy.Judson divides the history of our planet into five great epochas - rock light oxygen flesh and fire - each marked by the unlocking of a new source of energy. Through these transformations she argues Earth evolved from a barren asteroid-pummelled wasteland to the unique planet we inhabit today.However just as Earth made life life itself became a powerful geological force that reshaped Earth - shifting the positions of continents upheaving mountain ranges changing the colour of the sky and causing vast oceans to open and close.The Co-Creation reveals we are not merely occupiers of this planet but integral to its very existence.
