Echoes of life

About this book

Lodged in the earth’s outermost layer, ephemeral scratch on a mineral skin, life plays cards with a handful of elements—builds molecular extravaganzas of carbon and hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, or precious phosphorus, and forms the pieces to the parts that, assembled, define it. When the game is over, the cards reshu! ed, the parts dismantled—membranes ruptured, shells dissolved, bones ground to dust—a few of those organic molecules remain in the sediments and rocks, bearing witness to the distant moments of their creation.