Nature Fast and Nature Slow: How Life Works, from Fractions of a Second to Billions of Years

199 Pages·15.442 MB·English

by  Nicholas P. Money

NATURE FAST AND NATURE SLOW
Nicholas P. Money is Professor of Biology and Western Program
Director at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. He is the author of
popular science books on fungi and other microorganisms, including
The Amoeba in the Room: Lives of the Microbes (2014), Mushrooms:
A Natural and Cultural History (Reaktion, 2017) and The Selfish Ape:
Human Nature and Our Path to Extinction (Reaktion, 2019).
Praise for The Selfish Ape
‘I learned much from Nicholas Money’s book. I love his vivid, prose-
poetic imagery. Reading him is pure literary pleasure. He knows what to
say and, more importantly, he knows how to say it.’ – Professor Richard
Dawkins frs, author of The Selfish Gene and Outgrowing God
‘A tour de force of life on Earth. Money eloquently describes the
dynamics of life and the quite insignificant place of humans in the grand
scheme of existence. Charting important biological discoveries, he
describes life from all angles, including our molecular complexity and
our genetic makeup . . . the book brings together many perspectives
on human existence to create a beautiful but damning picture
of humankind.’ – The Biologist
Praise for Mushrooms
‘A well written, authoritative and beautifully illustrated account of
mushroom life and lore, leavened with humour. An ideal introduction to
the most beautiful members of nature’s least understood kingdom.’
– Richard Fortey frs, author of Life: An Unauthorised Biography
Praise for The Amoeba in the Room
‘Nicholas Money is an expert guide . . . The world will not seem
the same to anyone who reads his book.’
– Helen Bynum, Times Literary Supplement
N AT U R E F A S T
a n d
N AT U R E S L O W
How Life Works,
from Fractions of a Second
to Billions of Years
Nicholas p. MoNey
reaktion books
Published by
Reaktion Books Ltd
Unit 32, Waterside
44–48 Wharf Road
London n1 7ux, uk
www.reaktionbooks.co.uk
First published 2021
Copyright © Nicholas P. Money 2021
All rights reserved
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission
of the publishers
Printed and bound in India by Replika Press Pvt. Ltd
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
isbn 978 1 78914 404 8
CONTENTS
PREFACE 9
1 BALLISTICS 21
Fractions of Seconds (10-6–10-1 Seconds)
2 BEATS 35
Seconds (10⁰ Seconds)
3 BATS 49
Minutes and Hours (102–103 Seconds)
4 BLOSSOMS 64
Days, Weeks and Months (105–106 Seconds)
5 BROODS 78
Years (107 Seconds)
6 BEARS 93
Decades (108 Seconds)
7 BOWHEADS 107
Centuries (109 Seconds)
8 BRISTLECONES 121
Millennia (101⁰ Seconds)
9 BASILOSAURS 135

Millions of Years (1013Seconds)
10 BEGINNINGS 149

Billions of Years (1016Seconds)
References 164
Acknowledgements 193
Photo Acknowledgements 194
Index 195
The arrow of time and the timescale of nature in seconds
The timeline for the chapters in this book

PREFACE
Far away and far away
Flows the river of pure Day;
Cold and sweet the river runs
Through a thousand, thousand suns.
Fredegond Shove, The River of Life (1956)
Look in a mirror and remember your younger self. By middle
age, the face of the youth hangs there, recognizable still, but
camouflaged by blotches, creases and sags. The most expensive
cosmetic procedures cannot conceal the truth from more than
a fleeting glance. We get older without daily awareness of our
passage. John Milton conveyed this with customary elegance in
1
an early sonnet in which he cast time as ‘the subtle thief of youth’.
That subtlety is everything. Time is missed so easily, clocked
when our attention is on it, then flying onwards when life shakes
us from its contemplation. Even when we are watchful, however,
we are aware of just a sliver of it.
One second can be divided into 1,000 milliseconds or 1 mil-
lion microseconds. Microseconds might as well be flying by in
fairyland, but we are attentive to movements that occur in a
2
few milliseconds. From the Hawaiian shore, we marvel at the
9