Nature Fast and Nature Slow: How Life Works, from Fractions of a Second to Billions of Years

Description

This book is a vision of biology set within the entire timescale of the universe. It is about the timing of life, from microsecond movements to evolutionary changes over millions of years. Human consciousness is riveted to seconds, but a split-second time delay in perception means that we are unaware of anything until it has already happened. We live in the very recent past. Over longer timescales, this book examines the lifespans of the oldest organisms, prospects for human life extension, the evolution of whales and turtles, and the explosive beginning of life 4 billion years ago. With its poetry, social commentary and humour, this book will appeal to everyone interested in the natural world.

Nicholas P. Money is Professor of Biology and Western Program Director at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. He is the author of popular science books on fungi and other microorganisms including, The Amoeba in the Room: Lives of the Microbes (2014), Mushrooms: A Natural and Cultural History (Reaktion, 2017) and The Selfish Ape: Human Nature and Our Path to Extinction (Reaktion, 2019).

After reading Nicholas P. Money's deeply fascinating book, I realised I was looking at the world around me in a completely different way. It takes the reader on a journey that starts with a fraction of a second and ends with a billion years, in a book about the passage of time that is different from any other I have ever read.-Torbjorn Ekelund, author of 'In Praise of Paths: Walking Through Time and Nature' (2020)