Impossible Extinction: Natural Catastrophes and the Supremacy of the Microbial World

by Charles S. Cockell

Every 225 million years the Earth, and all the life on it, completes one revolution around the Milky Way Galaxy. During this remarkable journey, life is influenced by calamitous changes. Comets and asteroids strike the surface of the Earth, stars explode, enormous volcanoes erupt, and, more recently, humans litter the planet with waste. Many animals and plants become extinct during the voyage, but humble microbes, simple creatures made of a single cell, survive this journey. This book takes a tour of the microbial world, from the coldest and deepest places on Earth to the hottest and highest, and witnesses some of the most catastrophic events that life can face. Impossible Extinction tells this remarkable story to the general reader by explaining how microbes have survived on Earth for over three billion years. Charles Cockell received his doctorate from the University of Oxford, and is currently a microbiologist with rhe Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute (SETI), based at the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, UK. His research focusses on astrobiology, life in the extremes and the human exploration of Mars. Cockell has been on expeditions to the Arctic, Antarctic, Mongolia, and in 1993 he piloted a modified insect-collecting ultra-light aircraft over the Indonesian rainforests. He is Chair of the Twenty-one Eleven Foundation for Exploration, a charity that supports expeditions that forge links between space exploration and environmentalism.

Genres: Biology, Nonfiction, Environment, Evolution

200 pages, Hardcover

First published March 3, 2003

About the author

Charles Cockell is Professor of Astrobiology at the University of Edinburgh. His academic interests encompass life in extreme environments, the habitability of extraterrestrial environments and the human exploration and settlement of space. He has also written on the subject of extraterrestrial liberty.

He is author of scientific papers and books, including the undergraduate-level textbook 'Astrobiology' (Wiley) and numerous popular science books.

Reviews

[Jackson Der Vartanian · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book, The Impossible Extinction is a very interesting book. Even though this book does not have a storyline it is very good. This book is a book has a lot of facts. It involves a lot of astronomy and extraterrestrial life. It really opens your eyes to what other forms of life could be out there. I learned a lot about black holes. Did you know that black holes are collapsed stars that are so dense that not even light can escape? I really found this book interesting and it was very fun to read.

This book is really good for people that enjoy books that make them think. This book was very interesting in the beginning but towards the end it started to get boring and became more difficult to understand. If you are a strong reader and enjoy a challenging book that will make you question life on other planets, this is the book for you.

[Pam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Second reading during COVID-19 pandemic, seemed appropriate. So much weirdly obvious but vaguely incorrect information about viruses is circulating. They-viruses, that is--seem absolutely terrifying in their ability to evolve, mutate, adapt to environments....er, hosts. One headline screamed: they're not alive, no wonder we can't kill them!
Very readable for non-scientists like me. The span is from the microbial to the astronomical, as Cockell, an astrobiologist, sets up a timeframe consisting of one galactic orbit by our solar system to tell the story of the evolution and extinct event survival of micro-organisms on planet Earth--and beyond. A lot can--and did--happen in 225 million years. Exploring impact events, volcanic eruptions, plate tectonics, global climate change and more, the author runs down the survival odds, and comes up with the title's assertion: it is a near impossibility that microbes will go extinct before the entire destruction of the planet, if not the solar system.
The book is a fun read, full of fantastical facts of life found in impossible places. Impossibly hot, acidic, dark, barren, chaotic, cold, tiny (some live INSIDE rocks). Are they animal or vegetable? They move and replicate. They cannibalize, engulf, photo-synthesize, steal DNA. Some produce energy chemically, transforming molecules, freeing atoms, producing chemical "food" for their symbiotic neighbors on intricate food chains we can't even see. Some switch food sources, or go dormant for long periods until conditions that support them re-occur.
It was interesting to see this book was probably the source of a bit of information--geologic, it happens--that no one I've shared it with believes: that the Earth at one time had the elements and conditions to produce spontaneous nuclear fission. There's evidence buried in rock formations. There are, it happens, many ways that geology holds clues to biology. Cockell is able to communicate these processes with the barest mention of chemistry and physics, and so the layperson gets to taste the complexity of what "science" actually is: how precise and vast at the same time. Good to get this reminder at a time when science is both under attack and something that the general public thinks they can do with wifi and a browser.

[Beth Barraclough · Rating 2 out of 5]

Charles S. Cockell has opened our eyes to the universe that was, is, and will be through Impossible Extinction. This non-fiction novel will inform you on how the Earth came to be, and why. Impossible Extinction will blow you out of the universe.

Every 225 million years the Earth, and all the life on it, completes one revolution around the Milky Way Galaxy. During this remarkable journey, life is influenced by many changes. Comets and asteroids strike the surface of the Earth, stars explode, enormous volcanoes erupt, and, more recently, humans litter the planet with waste. Many animals and plants become extinct during the voyage, but microbes, creatures made of a single cell, survive this journey. This book takes a tour of the microbial world, from the coldest and deepest places on Earth to the hottest and highest, and witnesses some of the most catastrophic events that life can face.

I found this book very informative and anyone with a love for the Earth or the science of the Earth would enjoy this book. Impossible Extinction has much information on the creation and living of microbes all through the Earth's atmosphere down to the Earth's core. Overall, it gives a lot of information about the Earth and the galaxy surrounding her.

[Art · Rating 4 out of 5]

This books is an outstanding primer on life on earth - especially but not solely from the perspective of a microbiologist. It covers the history of life on earth including the major extinction events and focuses on why it is impossible to extinct microorganisms. They can live through all the catastrophes that can and have extincted other organisms on earth.

- this was my instructor in my Astrobiology class - an eminent researcher in the field and great educator, so I wanted to read his work