I've never been big on history. You could mention major events or well known names from history but I would probably only have a vague idea about them. So recently I decided I should do something about it. Upon returning a couple of books to my local library, I thought I would have a look in the history section, and I found a book called What On Earth Happened? by Christopher Lloyd. It's a concise yet comprehensive look at history (and pre-history; I've been listening mprezzy) since our universe popped into existence. I'm finding it a great book because it is so accessible and because it is all in relatively chronological order it is helping me piece together bits of information I already knew and making them all inter-relate. I haven't finished the book yet; I'm about half way through, and have just finished reading about the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of Christianity; something I'm sure alot of people, including some Christians, are not aware are so strongly intertwined. So I figured the best to learn something and retain the information is probably to rewrite some it, and share some of the interesting things I've learned. Maybe you will learn something you didn't know. The first chapter of the book deals with the Big Bang. At the moment the universe is still expanding, but debate goes on about whether the expansion is slowing down. From what I understand (from discussion with someone else, not directly from the book), there are three common threads of thought regarding the expansion of the universe. One, it will continue to expand at a relatively constant rate. Two, it will slow down until it reaches a stable point and stops expanding. Three, it will slow down, then start to contract back into a singularity. What boggles my mind is, if the universe is still expanding... what is it expanding into? And is the universe just a giant accordian that expands and contracts every few dozen billion years? If so, how many songs have already been played on this accordian? Given that homo sapiens have only existed for 0.003% of the current universes timeline, I dare say we would be extinct by the time the next contraction begins (if there is one). A great example in the book of the distance between galaxies is this; imagine our sun being a Smartie that you put on your table. To signify the next closest galaxy, the next Smartie would be ninety miles away. That would be one hell of a cab fare. Theia was an early planet that collided with Earth, and it's cored fused with the Earth's to create an iron core. This iron core gave birth to the magnetic field around Earth, which deflects the solar winds and without it, life would not be able to exist on Earth. The remnants of Theia became our moon, and both the impact and gravity of the moon turned Earths 4 hour day cycle into a 24 hour cycle. Harold Urey and Stanley Miller attempted to replicate the conditions of Earth at the time life began on Earth. After what was expected to be a failed experiment, it turned out they had created amino acids; a building block for living cells. To date no one has been able to create an actual living cell, and how these building blocks sprang to actual living cells still remains a mystery. The evolution of cyanobacteria billions of years ago used photosynthesis, with a byproduct being oxygen. Since then they have supplied surplus oxygen to our atmosphere that have allowed future life to evolve. It is estimated that if all cyanobacteria currently on Earth were wiped out, oxygen supplies would be depleted within 2000 years. Fungus are a varied lot and can range from one cell, to a massive discovery in Michigan on an underground fungus that stretches for 5 kilometres, is estimated to weigh more than 10 tonnes and is one of the Earths oldest survivors at over 1500 years old. About 250 million years ago the movements of the tectonic plates caused there to be one supercontinent, Pangaea. This caused a super volcano to erupt... that kept erupting for a million years. 96% of life was wiped out after this event. Dinosaurs were the first land animals to have their legs directly underneath them. 65 million years ago another mass extinction occured, caused by a massive meteor. Some fossil discoveries support this commonly accepted theory, as in the sediment there are dinosaur fossils, followed by a thick layer of clay which would have been caused by this devastating impact. It is not until you look several metres higher in these age old stones that sea creatures begin to reappear, indicating a return to normal life. What came first, flowers or bees? It is still a mystery, as bees and other pollinators help flowers to spread their pollen to reproduce. But how could flowers have developed without those pollinators in the first place? But without flowers first, how could bees survive, as this is their main source of food? This still remains a mystery. By the way, flowers did not evolve until 150 million years after trees. Dinosaur fossils have been discovered with feathers, and it is now expected that they developed these to keep warm. At what evolutionary step did dinosaurs develop these feathers into flight bearing ones (fossil finds indicate they were not capable of flight or glide bearing) and become our first birds? The answer is still unknown. Mammals that existed after the dinosaur age grew to enormous sizes. Those that lived in the age of dinosaurs had to remain small so that they could survive alongside the giant reptiles. With them gone, mammals could go supersize. The Capybara was a rat that could grow to the size of a donkey. Until 40 million years ago, Britain was underwater. About 4 million years ago apes came down from the trees and moved into the grassland. Fossilised footprints have been found that are unmistakenly made by primates walking on two feet. Homo habilis is the first human to have created and used tools, and dates back to 2.4 million years ago. While the primates from 4 million years ago are our ancestors in regards to walking on 2 feet, homo habilis represents a leap in intelligence. Up to 5 different species of humans were expected to have lived at the same time until homo sapiens (us) became the last surviving member of the species. Today Humans show very little genetic deviation compared to other mammals. Chimpanzees, who we are 96% alike to, show variation 10 times greater than humans. This means that at some point in our past, approximately 160,000 years ago, some event is expected to have wiped out a large portion of the species and left somewhere between 1000 and 10,000 alive, and this evolutionary line originates in Africa. Well that covers the pre-history and I need to head off. Some interesting things to think about. I will probably do a follow up with some other interesting tidbits once I've finished the book.