Author(s): Gabrielle Walker

Science & Natural History

A gripping global adventure story and a fascinating account of scientist Paul Hoffman's quest to prove his audacious 'Snowball Earth' theory Did the Earth once undergo a super ice age, one that froze the entire planet? Paul Hoffman, a brilliant and irascible scientist at Harvard, claims that the Earth experienced just such a climate cataclysm 700 million years ago. The consequences of this idea are far-reaching. For Hoffman believes that this global deep freeze triggered the great Cambrian Explosion, the so-far unexplained moment in geological time when a glorious profusion of complex life forms first sprang from the primordial soup. In her gripping account, Gabrielle Walker takes us on a journey to some of the most picturesque and formidable places on Earth - from the polar ice cap to the Australian outback and the African desert - as Hoffman and his fellow geologists travel the earth to find supporting evidence for their theories. Not just a tale about geology, or climate, or even evolution, Snowball Earth is the story of a revolution in the making. Intelligent, impassioned, and thrilling, this is science writing at its best.