Mann shows how a new generation of researchers equipped with novel scientific techniques have come to previously unheard-of conclusions about the Americas before the arrival of the Europeans: In 1491 there were probably more people living in the Americas than in Europe. Certain cities--such as Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital--were greater in population than any European city. Tenochtitlan, unlike any capital in Europe at that time, had running water,...

A major new book that shows the world already has the tools to feed itself, without expanding industrial agriculture or adopting genetically modified seeds, from the Small Planet Institute expert Few challenges are more daunting than feeding a global population projected to reach 9.7 billion in 2050 at a time when climate change is making it increasingly difficult to successfully grow crops. In response, corporate and philanthropic leaders have called...

Explores 250 wide-ranging milestones in the history of the planet Earth, including the birth of the moon, the oldest signs of life on Earth, the first mines, the invention of agriculture, women in earth science, reaching the South Pole, planet genetics, earthlike exoplanets, and rising CO₂ levels. Some of the key scientists and inventors from around the world who have shaped our modern understanding of planet Earth, such as Leonardo da Vinci and...