Very detailed walk through the apparent history of photosynthesis (non-oxygen-producing and oxygen-producing) over the history of Earth with a strong emphasis on the very large unknowns about its timing, the geochemical and biological consequences thereof, and the significance of oxygen-producing photosynthesis in particular (not just allowing multicellular creatures with lots of energy but also long before there was even any oxygen in the air allowing for much higher levels of biomass due to removing chemical limiting factors on biomass production by nonoxygenic photosynthesis).
The Copernicus Complex: Our Cosmic Significance in a Universe of Planets and Probabilities
Still reading it. For once a reasoned analysis of living and intelligent systems in the universe, given what we know and most importantly what we don’t know.
Oxygen: A Four Billion Year History.
http://press.princeton.edu/titles/10089.html http://www.amazon.com/Oxygen-Billion-History-Science-Essentials/dp/0691168369/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
Very detailed walk through the apparent history of photosynthesis (non-oxygen-producing and oxygen-producing) over the history of Earth with a strong emphasis on the very large unknowns about its timing, the geochemical and biological consequences thereof, and the significance of oxygen-producing photosynthesis in particular (not just allowing multicellular creatures with lots of energy but also long before there was even any oxygen in the air allowing for much higher levels of biomass due to removing chemical limiting factors on biomass production by nonoxygenic photosynthesis).
The Copernicus Complex: Our Cosmic Significance in a Universe of Planets and Probabilities
http://www.amazon.com/Copernicus-Complex-Caleb-Scharf/dp/0374129215/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1464890000&sr=1-1&keywords=the+copernicus+complex
Still reading it. For once a reasoned analysis of living and intelligent systems in the universe, given what we know and most importantly what we don’t know.