The planet in a pebble: a journey into Earth's deep history
How the interplay between physics, chemistry, biology and geology forms our world
In 1848, Michael Faraday delivered his successful series of lectures on breaking down that most ordinary of objects, the candle. He demonstrated to the audience how chemistry and physics worked hand in hand to produce light, something which we often take for granted. Echoing Faraday’s standout lectures, Zalasiewicz draws us into science by considering a pebble. This unremarkable pebble, plucked from the thousands that litter the Welsh coastline, becomes his vehicle for leading us on an almost improbable journey of the creation, evolution and subsequent destruction of our universe.