Earth Sciences

A Radio 4 Book Club Selection.

A Short History of Nearly Everything is Bill Bryson's fascinating and humorous quest to understand everything that has happened from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization....

I am 93. I've had an extraordinary life. It's only now that I appreciate how extraordinary....

A Short History of Nearly Everything is Bill Bryson’s quest to find out everything that has happened from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization....

In his first major book of nonfiction since In an Antique Land, Ghosh examines our inability - at the level of literature, history, and politics - to grasp the scale and violence of climate change....

Sixty-six million years ago the dinosaurs were wiped from the face of the earth....

So much of our human body is made up of salt that we'd be dead without it...

Published in 1951, The Sea Around Us is one of the most remarkably successful books ever written about the natural world....

Readers will discover the dangers behind many of today's foods....

World renowned scientist, Dr. Gerald Pollack, takes us on a fantastic voyage through water, showing us a hidden universe teeming with physical activity - providing simple explanations for common everyday phenomena, which you have inevitably seen but not really understood....

Provocative and illuminating essays from women at the forefront of the climate movement who are harnessing truth, courage, and solutions to lead humanity forward....

In this Very Short Introduction, Warwick Vincent outlines the essential features of lake environments and their biology, offering an up-to-date view of lake ecosystems. Vincent traces the origins of lake science (limnology) from the seminal work of Francois Forel to modern approaches....

When it comes to climate change, the media, politicians, and other prominent voices have declared that "the science is settled." In reality, the long game of telephone from research to reports to the popular media is corrupted by misunderstanding and misinformation....

Der Goldschmied und Gemmologe Volker Schwarz entführt Sie auf äußerst vergnügliche Weise für eine knappe Spielfilmlänge in die Welt des Schmucks und der Edelsteine, also in die Welt des völlig Überflüssigen, aber absolut Notwendigen. Erfahren Sie in den folgenden etwa 70 Minuten, warum es Halbedelsteine gar nicht gibt, der Rubin in der Imperial State Crown in London gar kein Rubin ist und warum eine Goldschmiede immer noch die Nummer eins ist, wenn es um Schmuck und Stein geht.

Ours is the age of global warming. Rising sea levels, extreme weather, forest fires. Climate scientist Peter Stott reveals the bitter fight to get international recognition for what, among scientists, has been known for decades: human activity causes climate change. Across continents and against the efforts of sceptical governments, prominent climate change deniers and shadowy lobbyists, Hot Air is the urgent story of how the science was developed, how it has been repeatedly sabotaged and why humanity hasn't a second to spare in the fight to halt climate change.

Spanning millennia and continents, here is a stunningly revealing history of how the distribution of water has shaped human civilization. Giulio Boc­caletti - honorary research associate at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, Univer­sity of Oxford - shrewdly combines environmental and social history, beginning with the earliest civ­ilizations of sedentary farmers on the banks of the Nile, the Tigris, and the Euphrates Rivers.

Forse il passaggio più importante in tutta la storia umana è quello che ha segnato il passaggio dalla caccia e dalla raccolta all'agricoltura e all'allevamento. L'umanità inizia a produrre il cibo di cui ha bisogno, e ad accumularlo, anziché cercare di procurarselo giorno per giorno. Ma per coltivare la terra non si può essere nomadi: si formano i primi villaggi, le prime città. Una rivoluzione, la rivoluzione neolitica.

In questo episodio Mario Tozzi e Guido Barbujani provano a ripercorrere storie evolutive di specie umane diverse dalla nostra e a indagare su relazioni ancora non perfettamente chiare con lontani parenti, come l'Oreopiteco, un ominide che popolava la Toscana e la Sardegna del Miocene, e come l'Homo naledi, i cui resti sono stati ritrovati in Sudafrica nel 2013 e hanno portato alla definizione di una specie fino ad allora sconosciuta, simile alla nostra per certi versi, e molto diversa per altri.