Earth and Life: A Dance Through Time
Crafoord Academy Lecture by Andrew H. Knoll
About This Lecture
In this Crafoord Academy Lecture, Andrew H. Knoll of Harvard University delivers an extended exploration of the reciprocal relationship between life and Earth over geological time. This nearly two-hour lecture covers how biological evolution has been shaped by — and in turn shaped — Earth’s atmosphere, oceans, and climate across 4 billion years, from the earliest microbial life to the complex ecosystems of today.
Andrew H. Knoll
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
“Earth and Life: A Dance Through Time”
A comprehensive lecture spanning Earth’s entire history, examining how geological processes (volcanism, tectonics, atmospheric change) and biological evolution (photosynthesis, oxygenation, multicellularity) have been intimately coupled throughout deep time.
Key Concepts
- • Earth System Science: The interdisciplinary study of Earth as an integrated system of interacting geological, biological, atmospheric, and oceanic components
- • Co-evolution of Life and Earth: The feedback loops between biological innovation (e.g., photosynthesis) and planetary transformation (e.g., atmospheric oxygenation)
- • Snowball Earth: Global glaciation events in the Neoproterozoic (~720–635 Ma) that profoundly affected the evolution of eukaryotic life
- • Cambrian Explosion: The rapid appearance of major animal phyla ~538 Ma, driven by ecological and environmental changes in the late Neoproterozoic