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9781501317910

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Earth is ambitious, thought-provoking and inspirational, conversationally written between two dissimilar but very complementary viewpoints. In this great age of exoplanetary discovery, it makes me wonder how unique our wonderful home planet really is. Scott Parazynski, MD, University Explorer and Professor at Arizona State University, USA, and NASA Astronaut (retired) In this charming and seductive volume we are fortunate to 'eavesdrop' on letters written between two curious and sharp intellects on opposite sides of what is normally considered a vast chasm separating science and culture. As personal as they are professional, and as much as the mindsets of a distinguished planetary scientist and that of an equally distinguished medieval studies professor differ, it is what they share in common when thinking about that object so dear to all of us, the Earth, that is so fascinating. Both hope to get a better sense of what this orb on which we are fortunate to live, really signifies. On the one hand, it just another rocky world in a galaxy that may house billions of such world. On the other the source of intelligent life, which can muse poetically about its own significance, or lack thereof. And it is poetry that came to mind as I enjoyed reading these letters-the poetry of imagination, the poetry of reality. What this delightful and informative book ultimately demonstrates is that the humanity of science itself offers untold fuel for the humanities to ponder our existence. If we turn inward our stories will become stale. The Universe forces us to reassess ourselves at every moment. The letters in this book share a universal love of knowledge and life that are invigorating, and the Object of this book, the Earth, is at once more interesting and better off because both of these scholars chose to write about it. Lawrence M. Krauss is a theoretical physicist and Director of the Origins Project at Arizona State University. He is the author of the NYT bestsellers The Physics of Star Trek and A Universe from Nothing. His newest book, The Greatest Story Ever Told...So Far, will appear in March of 2017.

Earth is ambitious, thought-provoking and inspirational, conversationally written between two dissimilar but very complementary viewpoints. In this great age of exoplanetary discovery, it makes me wonder how unique our wonderful home planet really is. Scott Parazynski, MD, University Explorer and Professor at Arizona State University, USA, and NASA Astronaut (retired) As much as the mindsets of a distinguished planetary scientist and a medieval studies professor differ, it is what they share in common when thinking about that object so dear to all of us, the Earth, that is so fascinating. What this delightful and informative book ultimately demonstrates is that the humanity of science itself offers untold fuel for the humanities to ponder our existence. The Object of this book, the Earth, is at once more interesting and better off because both of these scholars chose to write about it. Lawrence M. Krauss, theoretical physicist and author of A Universe from Nothing and The Greatest Story Ever Told-So Far Earth is a magical, unusual, curious book ... Cohen and Elkins-Tanton describe it as a little book about an impossibly large subject. This subject is made even larger by Cohen and Elkins-Tanton's forays into discussions of beauty, creativity, and imagination (including my favorite question in the book: Can you die from an overactive imagination? ) and how they connect to science and ultimately this planet. This makes Earth a book that is, ultimately, a testament to what can be discovered if we are brave enough to combine the unexpected. PopMatters

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Jeffrey Jerone Cohen is Dean of Humanities at Arizona State University, USA, and co-president of the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment. He is the author or editor of 13 books, including Stone: An Ecology of the Inhuman (which received the 2017 René Wellek Prize for best book in comparative literature). Linda T. Elkins-Tanton is Foundation Professor and Director of the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University, USA. She is the author of a six-book series The Solar System (1st edition 2006; 2nd edition 2010) and co-editor, with A. Schmidt and K. Fristad, of Volcanism and Global Environmental Change (2015). Her articles have been published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Nature Geoscience, Nature, Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, and Astrophysical Journal, among other publications.

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