Impossible extinction : natural catastrophes and the supremacy of the microbial world /

Cockell offers an interesting, general-readership book that juxtaposes two normally unlinked topics: mass extinctions through geologic time and the prowess of microbes at surviving/thriving when we, the more advanced creatures, are dying out. The author, a science writer and astrobiologist, takes readers through one 225-million-year revolution of the solar system around the galaxy. Early chapters discuss the formation of the solar system; evolution of microbes and their amazing ability to live in extreme and diverse environments; and the major extinctions that have occurred in the last 600 million years. Asteroid impacts, supernovae, volcanoes, and human influences on extinction all have their own later chapters. In all cases, the harmful effects on higher organisms of these events are contrasted with the ability of microbes to survive these catastrophes. The last chapter explores the possibility of life on other planets, and of microbes from our planet seeding other worlds. General readers will find the concepts quite accessible, although specialists will not find it as useful. Glossary; color and black-and-white photographs; no references. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. General readers. R. Seelke University of Wisconsin--Superior