From the Beginning

By Erica Carter

A long time ago, the sun, stars, ocean, mountains, and everything elseeven timedid not exist.

So how did everything come from nothing?

The straightforward, scientific explanations in this wonderful little book will help you answer that question, which may come from the youngsters in your life or that you may even ask yourself. Get the answers to questions such as:

How did the Big Bang create protons, neutrons, and electronsand how did those combine to form atoms? Why didnt the early galaxies have planets? What is so special about the Milky Way? How is all life on Earth related? What are the twenty-five elements found in life forms?

Youll also learn about the first primitive forms of life on Earth, how the human race developed and evolved, what fossils and bones tell us about our past, and how climate change has affected the human race throughout time.

While you wont learn about all the magical wonders in the world, you will learn what happened From The Beginning.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Feb 18, 2016
• ISBN: 9781514444320

Erica Carter

Erica Carter is Professor of German and Film at King’s College London. Her books include Béla Balázs:  Early Film Theory (2010), Dietrich’s Ghosts: The Sublime and the Beautiful in Third Reich Film (2004) and How German is She? Postwar West German Reconstruction and the Consuming Woman (1997).

Book preview

Copyright © 2016 by Erica Carter 714019

Softcover      978-1-5144-4431-3

Hardcover     978-1-5144-4433-7

EBook           978-1-5144-4432-0

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 02/17/2016

Xlibris

1-800-455-039

www.xlibris.com.au

For the love of

Mikayla, Olivia, and Gwendoline

Contents

Introduction

Prologue

Chapter 1 Stars, Planets, and Galaxies

The Solar System

Chapter 2 Earth: Cooking up a Planet

Chapter 3 Life on Earth

DNA

Chapter 4 The Human Story

Chapter 5 Civilization

The Wheel

Money

Metals

The Written Word

Textiles and Clothing

Glass

Paper

Printing

Chapter 6 Modern Inventions

Electricity

Steel

Trains

Cars

Aeroplanes

Rockets

Satellites

Medical Science

Computers

What an Amazing World We Now Live In

Introduction

Once upon a time, time didn’t exist. That’s hard to imagine, isn’t it? But scientists have proven this to be fact.

Can you imagine everything you see—the sun, the stars, the ocean, and the mountains—once did not exist, not even time itself?

What’s also amazing is that scientists can explain how from seemingly nothing came everything. The answer is as magical as it is complex and as interesting as it is amazing.

This is the story of how everything you see came to be.

Prologue

About 13.8 billion years ago, from a single point a million