A Most Improbable Journey – Jan 24

One in a million doesn’t even come close! Not when we’re talking about the odds that you would happen to be alive today, on this particular planet, hurtling through space. Almost 14 billion years of cosmic history, more than 4 billion years of Earth history, and a couple million years of human history, has led to you. Legendary geophysicist Walter Alvarez discusses the "big picture" insights in his latest book, A Most Improbably Journey: A Big History of Our Planet and Ourselves.

Walter Alvarez is Professor of the Graduate School and Professor of Earth & Planetary Science at UC Berkeley. He is perhaps best know for attributing the Cretaceous-ending mass extinction to the impact of a giant asteroid or comet — later verified by discovery of the largest impact crater on Earth.

Walter Alvarez