Earth and Life: A Four-Billion-Year Dialogue

Nature's book review of Andrew Knoll's Earth & Life argues that life and Earth have co-evolved in a four-billion-year dialogue, with geobiology showing how microorganisms and planetary processes shaped Earth's atmosphere, especially oxygen via the Great Oxidation Event; Knoll contends that interpreting Earth's past requires assembling fragmentary rock records, testing hypotheses, and embracing uncertainty, while offering lessons for understanding modern climate change and the search for life on other planets.