Win a Copy of the New Book "Cosmic Heritage -- Evolution from the Big Bang to Conscious Life"

By Nancy Atkinson - October 18, 2011 at 1:00 PM UTC | Cosmology
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How did the Universe begin and evolve? How did life start on Earth? These questions are discussed in a new book, "Cosmic Heritage -- Evolution from the Big Bang to Conscious Life." Thanks to the folks at

Springer Astronomy

, we have 10 copies of this engaging book to give away! Just

send us an email

with "Shaver Book" in the subject line and Fraser will randomly choose 10 winners. Deadline for the contest is Thursday Oct. 20, 2011 at 1200 GMT. The contest is open to anyone around the world.

This book follows the evolutionary trail all the way from the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago to conscious life today. It is an accessible introductory book written for the interested layperson – anyone interested in the 'big picture' coming from modern science. It covers a wide range of topics including the origin and evolution of our universe, the nature and origin of life, the evolution of life including questions of birth and death, the evolution of cognition, the nature of consciousness, the possibility of extraterrestrial life and the future of the universe. The book is written in a narrative style, as these topics are all parts of a single story. It concludes with a discussion on the nature and future of science.

See more about the book at

Amazon.com

and read a

guest post by Shaver on Universe Today.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com