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Review
'Opens a window on the night sky and the marvels that streak across it' --Guardian
'It is hard not to be engaged by this richly explored and expertly explained subject' --Financial Times
`Nield is geologist with a sense of history and humour' --The Times
'Nield has a gift for bringing the science alive ... I, for one, am now convinced to love the meteorite!' --BBC Focus
`A detective story told with great wit. Incoming! should make a real impact'
--News of the World
'It is hard not to be engaged by this richly explored and expertly explained subject' --Financial Times
`Nield is geologist with a sense of history and humour' --The Times
'Nield has a gift for bringing the science alive ... I, for one, am now convinced to love the meteorite!' --BBC Focus
`A detective story told with great wit. Incoming! should make a real impact'
--News of the World
Product Description
Astonishing new research suggests that 470 million years ago, a stupendous collision in the Asteroid Belt (whose debris is still falling today) bombarded the Earth with meteorites of all sizes. A revolutionary idea is emerging that the resulting ecological disturbance may have been responsible for the single greatest increase in biological diversity since the origin of complex life - the hitherto unexplained Great Ordovician Biodiversity Event. Introducing these fresh discoveries to a wider public for the first time, Ted Nield challenges the orthodox view that meteorite strikes are always bad news for life on Earth. He argues that one of the most widely known scientific theories - that dinosaurs were wiped out by a strike 65 million years ago - isn't the whole picture, and that the causes of the end-Cretaceous mass extinction (of which the dinosaurs' demise was a part) were much more varied and complex. Meteorites have been the stuff of legend throughout human history, interpreted as omens of doom or objects of power. But only in the 18th century, when the study of falling space debris became a science, were meteorites used to unlock the mysteries of our universe. Incoming! traces the history of meteorites from the first recorded strike to the video recordings made routinely today, showing how our interpretations have varied according to the age in which they fell, and how meteorite impacts were given fresh urgency with the advent of the atom bomb. Introducing a wealth of fascinating characters alongside extraordinary new research, Ted Nield has written the perfect introduction to the science and history of the falling skyA".
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Asteroids have had a bad press as dinosaur killers and a threat to life on Earth. Ted Neild, a professional geologist who also has a knack of explaining complicated things in easy to understand language, puts all the scare stories in perspective, explaining how impacts from space played a part in the creation of the Earth, and may have been responsible for the emergence of intelligent life on our planet. The threat is still there, but it is nowhere near as big as the other problems facing humankind.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Hmmm. This sadly did not live up to my expectations - formed from reading a review, and then the first couple of promising chapters. These were largely abouit the history of meteors and how people perceived them. As the book went on, however, it got more and more turgid and I had difficulty finishing it. Somewhere in the middle it seemed to switch to a compendium of famous and not-so-famous living and dead scientists, complete with dates of birth etc - often people in which one could not be expected to have the slightest interest, e.g., lecturers at the author's university. And where was the publisher's editor?? I thought I'ld scream reading the word "savant", used on almost every page. Disappointing.
Format:Kindle Edition
This is a really interesting book, that explains why the earth needs its regular doses of meteorites. Even if you are already pretty well informed about popular astronomy, you will find lots of intriguing information in this book - it is an easy read and one that you will want to re-read and share.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Heavenly bodies
This book, like its author, is first class and explains in easily understood terms the wonders of space which can be difficult to comprehend in view of their magnitude.
Published 7 months ago by gillian
Kept a picky geologist interested...
... so it must be good! Although some of her recent reading around the subject has been found wanting, this book fulfilled the promise on the cover, and is heartily recommended.
Published 13 months ago by Mr. C. J. Pierce
The impact of impacts
Well now I know that a lot I thought I knew about the impact of impacts (meteorite impacts that is) was wrong - but this fine book also showed how my understanding evolved so... Read more
Published 14 months ago by P. J. Dunn
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