Web Book

Copyright Notice

These materials are works protected by the Copyright Laws of the United States and international treaties and are displayed solely for use by students of GP25 or Humbio 107 in connection with their course work at Stanford University. Astronomy 155 at San Jose State University, and Planetary Evolution and Habitability GE 159 at CalTech.

These materials may not be copied, displayed, distributed or used to make derivative works without the express written consent of the copyright owner. Any person wishing to copy or use these material for any purpose should make request in writing to Dr. Norman Sleep, Department of Geophysics, Stanford University.

Table of Contents

• Title page and Forward
• Table of contents
• The Earth: As You Like It?
• Prologue
• Chapter 1 | The Insignificance of the Earth
• Chapter 2 | The Vastness of Space
• Chapter 3 | The New Math and Some Physics
• Chapter 4 | Interlude: What is Science; What is Life?
• Chapter 5 | Geological Time: So Much, So Little
• Chapter 6 | Inconstant Stars
• Chapter 7 | A Clement Climate
• Chapter 8 | The Earth: A Churning Planet
• Chapter 9 | Biological evolution: Real Correlations and False Coincidences
• Chapter 10 | The trials and tribulations of Mother Earth
• Chapter 11 | Asteroid impacts: Living at Ground Zero
• Chapter 12 | Life on Mars
• Chapter 14 | Little Green Men
• Chapter 13 | More Abodes for Life
• Epilogue: The Morning After 400 Years of Data and Science in Practice