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Books and Arts

Nature 436, 462 (28 July 2005) | doi:10.1038/436462a; Published online 27 July 2005

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A planet tells its story

Simon Lamb1

BOOK REVIEWEDReading the Rocks: The Autobiography of the Earth

by Marcia Bjornerud

Basic Books: 2005. 256 pp. $26, £15.50

On a recent flight back to Britain from the United States, the person sitting next to me, after discovering that I was a geologist, asked me if it was true that predictions about global warming were just bad science.I thought of the scientists around the world who had devoted their careers to unravelling the way our planet works and the impact we humans have had on the environment.