| Description |
1 online resource (388 pages) |
| Contents |
Acknowledgements; Preface; Contents; Part I Origins; Chapter 1 Our Origins; 1.1 The Ancient Questions; 1.2 You Can't Answer Everything; 1.3 The Importance of Doubt; 1.4 Are Science and Religion Compatible?; 1.5 Life in the Universe; Chapter 2 The Beginning of Everything; 2.1 The Big Bang; 2.2 Olbers' Paradox; 2.3 Hubble's Constant; 2.4 The Expanding Universe; 2.5 Background Radiation; 2.6 The Inflated Universe; 2.7 The Horizon of "Our" Universe; 2.8 The Image of the Most Distant Source; 2.9 Dark Matter and Energy; 2.10 After the Big Bang; 2.11 Before the Big Bang |
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4.9 The Spectra of the Stars4.10 Molecules in Space; Chapter 5 The Origins of Life; 5.1 Introduction; 5.2 Life is a Chemical Process; 5.3 The Primordial Soup; 5.4 The Cell; 5.5 The Kingdom of the Living Things; 5.6 DNA: An Instruction Manual for Organisms; 5.7 Variations in the Genetic Code; 5.8 Darwin's Theory of Evolution; 5.9 Evolution and Complexity; 5.10 The Cultural Evolution; 5.11 Does Life Come by Chance?; 5.12 Why Carbon?; 5.13 Suppose Life Came from Space; 5.14 Conclusion; Part II The Case of the Earth; Chapter 6 History of the Earth; 6.1 Fossils and the Age of the Rocks |
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6.2 The Primordial Earth6.3 The Birth of Life; 6.4 The First Bacteria; 6.5 The First Three Billion Years; 6.6 Photosynthesis; 6.7 From Cells to Multicellular Organisms; 6.8 The "Big Bang" of Evolution: The Origin of Species; 6.9 From the Origin of the Species to the Dinosaurs; 6.10 The Dinosaurs; 6.11 The End of the Dinosaurs; 6.12 Mammals; Chapter 7 Extinctions; 7.1 Extinctions of Species in Biological Evolution; 7.2 Causes of Extinctions; Intense volcanic eruptions; Large drop in sea levels; Meteorite impacts; 7.3 Mass Extinctions; 7.4 Extinctions and the Species on the Earth |
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7.5 The Modern Era Extinction7.6 The Anthropocene; 7.7 Polar Ices; 7.8 The Climate: An Unstable System; 7.9 The Problem of Energy; 7.10 A Difficult Choice; 7.11 What Future Will We Have?; Chapter 8 An Inhabitable Planet; 8.1 The Habitable Zone in the Galaxy; The central zone of the galaxy; The intermediate zone; The external zone; 8.2 The Reservoir of the Comets; 8.3 The External Planets; 8.4 Mars; 8.5 Venus; 8.6 The Earth: A Habitable Planet; 8.7 The Habitable Zone of the Planetary System; Chapter 9 The Importance of Continental Drift; 9.1 A World of Water; 9.2 The Structure of the Earth |
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Chapter 3 Origins of Stars and Planets3.1 The Stars and the Planets; 3.2 The Placental Cloud; 3.3 From the Cloud to the Star; 3.4 The Giant Molecular Clouds; 3.5 Populations of Stars; 3.6 Disks; 3.7 Outflows; 3.8 The Planets; 3.9 The Discovery of the First Planets; 3.10 Timescales; 3.11 The End of the Cloud; Chapter 4 The Origin of the Elements; 4.1 The Primordial Abundances; 4.2 The Origin of the Elements; 4.3 The Luminosity of the Stars; 4.4 White Dwarfs and Red Giants; 4.5 Supernovae; 4.6 The Cycle of Matter; 4.7 Fuel for the Stars; 4.8 The Abundances of the Elements on the Earth |
| Summary |
What is the origin of the universe? Are we alone in the Universe? Using clear and plain language, the author explores these two interesting scientific-philosophical themes with a broad range of studies, including astronomy, cosmology, chemistry, biology |
| Notes |
9.3 Continental Drift |
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Description based on print version record |
| Subject |
Cosmology.
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Life on other planets.
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| Author |
Goodstein, David
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| ISBN |
9789814295550 (electronic bk.) |
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9814295558 (electronic bk.) |
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