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Illustrated with breathtaking images of the Solar System and of the Universe around it, this book explores how the discoveries within the Solar System and of distant exoplanets come together to aid understanding of the habitability of Earth, and how this guides the search for exoplanets that could support life. The author recounts how, within two decades of the discovery of the first planets outside the Solar System in the 1990s, scientists concluded that planets are so common that most stars are orbited by them. The twelve chapters highlight what we have learned about exoplanets and how the lives of exoplanets and their stars are inextricably interwoven. Stars are the seeds around which planetary systems form. Stars provide their planets with light and warmth for as long as they shine. At the end of their lives, stars expel massive amounts of newly forged elements into deep space. That ejected material is incorporated into subsequent generations of planets. How do we learn about these distant worlds? What does the exploration of other planets tell us about the history of Earth? Can we find out what the distant future may have in store for us? What do we know about exoworlds and starbirth, and where do migrating hot Jupiters, polluted white dwarfs, and free-roaming nomad planets fit in? What does all that have to do with the habitability of Earth and the possibility of finding extraterrestrial life? And how did the globe-spanning network of the sciences begin to answer all these questions?

Oxford Weather and Climate since 1767 provides a detailed description and analysis of the weather records made at the Radcliffe Observatory in Oxford, the longest continuous series of single-site weather records in Britain and one of the longest in the world. The earliest records date from 1767, and daily records are unbroken since November 1813. The records allow the reconstruction of 200-year temperature and rainfall series and places the Oxford records in the context of long-term climate change. In this, the first full publication of the entire dataset, the long Oxford record is both celebrated and described. Detailed commentaries on weather by month and by season are provided, including numerous contemporary documentary and photographic evidence of past weather events. Drought and flood feature prominently, but so too do fog, frost, ice and snow. Some long-term changes are obvious, such as the increase in air temperature over the period of the instrumental record, but the impact on the growing season and the ability to grow grapes commercially near Oxford are less well known.

Written in a witty and informal style, this book explains modern plate tectonics in a non-technical manner, showing not only how it accounts for phenomena such as great earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions, but also how it controls conditions at the Earth’s surface, including global geography and climate, making it suitable for life. The book presents the advances that have been made since the establishment of plate tectonics in the 1960s, highlighting, on the fiftieth anniversary of the theory, the contributions of a small number of scientists who have never been widely recognized for their discoveries. Beginning with the publication of a short article in Nature by Vine and Matthews, the book traces the development of plate tectonics through two generations of the theory. First-generation plate tectonics covers the exciting scientific revolution of the 1960s, its heroes, and its villains. The second generation includes the rapid expansions in sonar, satellite, and seismic technologies during the 1980s and 1990s that provided a truly global view of the plates and their motions, and an appreciation of the role of their within the Earth system. Arriving at the cutting edge of the science, the latest results from studies using techniques such as seismic tomography and mineral physics to probe the deep interior are discussed and the prospects for finding plate tectonics on other planets assessed. Ultimately, the book leads to the startling conclusion that, without plate tectonics, the Earth would be as lifeless as Venus.