The Origin and Evolution of Earth: From the Big Bang to the Future of Human Existence

Beginning the study of Earth's history by voyaging backward in time; seeing how each crucial stage in the evolution of the planet depends on what comes before; previewing the role played by minerals, which coevolves with life.

Earth exists for only a third of the history of the universe; what happens before the planet forms; journeying back to the Big Bang; how fundamental forces and particles freeze out of a homogeneous state in the initial moments of cosmic evolution.

Tracing the origin of minerals; discovering a candidate for the first crystal forged in the cauldron of dying stars; following the processes that create other early minerals, which survive in their original form in microscopic presolar dust grains.

Unraveling the story told in "presolar" grains of dust; these are the earliest building blocks of the solar system; how scientists identify these microscopic particles; seeing how the field of cosmochemistry is revolutionizing the study of minerals.

Plunging into deep time; Professor Hazen teaches an analogy that orients one along this sea of ceaseless change; exploring the techniques that allow scientists to date rocks and other materials with precision.