A New History of Life
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A New History of Life
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Narrated by:
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Stuart Sutherland
About this listen
The story of our world and the different living things that have populated it is an amazing epic with millions of species, exotic settings, planet-wide cataclysms, and surprising plot twists.
These 36 lectures tell the all-embracing story of life on Earth - its origins, extinctions, and evolutions - in a manner that assumes no background in science. At half an hour per lecture, you’ll cover the entire 4.54-billion-year history of Earth in 18 hours, averaging 70,000 years per second!
Professor Sutherland notes that if the story of Earth is compared to the height of the Washington Monument, then all of human history is the thickness of a sheet of paper balanced at the top. He devotes most of these lectures to the incredible happenings beneath that piece of paper, including stirring episodes such as Earth’s “snowball” phase, which should have been permanent according to some theories; the Cambrian explosion, after which life’s complexity soared in an explosion of genetic diversification; and the age of giant insects, where dragonflies had 30-inch wingspans and cockroaches reached 20 inches in length. By the time you reach the origin of humans in Lecture 35, you’ll appreciate our species in the widest possible context. Why does the Earth have continents? What causes periodic mass extinctions? How did animals move from water to land? What are the oldest fossils? Experience the thrill of scientists searching for answers to questions such as these.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2013 The Great Courses (P)2013 The Teaching Company, LLCListeners also enjoyed...
What listeners say about A New History of Life
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Nikki
- 21-11-22
Great, just a shame about the visuals
Really good, interesting content with a good narrator. The only issue is frequent references to visual content not included (obviously!) in the audiobook, nor in the pdf that comes with it. Look at this slide, or this fossil, see that bit there? Well... no! It is a bit annoying. However, it's only once or twice in each lecture, so it doesn't dominate the course. And since he explains what is important about what his students are seeing, I didn't feel I couldn't understand what was happening because I couldn't see it. I still enjoyed the series a lot, and will listen to it again as well.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Lucy Moss
- 01-02-23
Absolutely Fascinating
Completely compelling, and delivered with a charming wry humour that elevates what could be a very dull recounting of fossil histories and rock formation to a real narrative.
I really, really enjoyed it and listened twice because there were so many good bits!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- C. A. Garratt
- 13-12-22
Enlighten
Brilliant enlightening easy to understand , kept me riveted and hungry for more , I’m sad it’s done!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- michael cook
- 16-09-20
The history of life, what's not to like
Stewart sutherland is an engaging, and eloquent tutor in this history of life on earth. He explains complex ideas and theories, with aplomb, enthusiasm and a sense of Humour. He manages to make, deep time and all the complicated, processes, that bring us to where we are now, interesting and I can't recommend this enough
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- nonono
- 07-05-21
Absolutely loved it!
The professor is like a mixture of prof. Brian Cox and Russel Brand, the lectures were exciting and full of knowledge and interesting facts. I'm a first year geology student, so most of it was new information, but this is definitely the way to make me want to know more. I'd love to listen to more of his lectures.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- Amazon Customer
- 30-01-23
Fascinating
I found this a very fascinating and informative audio book. Stuart Sutherland makes this subject easy to grasp. I enjoyed listening to his voice.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Rossella C Gardner
- 01-11-22
Simply brilliant
Engaging and interesting, not a moment of boredom which plagues many of the courses offered. Thank you for such gem, mr Sutherland ☺️
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Jean
- 25-11-19
Love this audiobook
I absolutely love this audio book and I am listening to it for the third time. Yes he refers to the diagrams but I don't feel it detracts too much from the talk. The professor who is speaking has a great manner and I don't find myself zoning out as I do with other speakers.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- kris clark
- 08-09-22
what a journey!
the lecturer was great! a culmination of several fields of Earth science, telling one epic story.
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- gouldina
- 06-11-22
Fascinating
Very interesting series of lectures delivered very well by a very entertaining lecturer. Would recommend.
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