Author Bryson takes a journey through the scientific world with some of the most eminent scientists of the day.

How did life begin? It is perhaps the most important question science has ever asked. Over the centuries, the search for an answer has been entwined with some of science's most revolutionary advances, including van Leeuwenhoek's microscope, Darwin's theory of evolution, and Crick and Watson's unveiling of DNA. Now, in an age of genetic engineering and space exploration, some scientists believe they are on the verge of creating life from nonliving...

"Winner of the 2003 Book Award in Science, Phi Beta Kappa" Andrew H. Knoll is the Fisher Professor of Natural History at Harvard University and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. A paleontologist by training, he has spent more than two decades working to integrate geological and biological perspectives on early life. Australopithecines, dinosaurs, trilobites--such fossils conjure up images of lost worlds filled with vanished organisms....

In the tradition of E.H. Gombrich, Stephen Hawking, and Alan Weisman-an entertaining and uniquely informed narration of Life's life story. In the beginning, Earth was an inhospitably alien place-in constant chemical flux, covered with churning seas, crafting its landscape through incessant volcanic eruptions. Amid all this tumult and disaster, life began. The earliest living things were no more than membranes stretched across microscopic gaps in rocks,...

Presents recent archaeological findings about the first people to settle the Americas, how they got here, and from what continent they came.

"Dino" Don Lessem brings readers face-to-face with various dinosaur species, detailing their habitats, way of life and how they became extinct. An acclaimed dinosaur expert, Don Lessem has written more than 30 children's books, writes a popular dinosaur column in Highlights magazine, and was an adviser for Jurassic Park. Take a trip through dinosaur time to meet these feathered dinosaurs face to face: The Caudipteryx had feathered arms and a tail...

This study of Native American societies is adapted for younger readers from Charles C. Mann's best-selling 1491. Turning conventional wisdom on its head, the book argues that the people of North and South America lived in enormous cities, raised pyra

Covers the history of early man in America from the earliest known sites to approximately 1492 A.D.