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Ends of the Earth: Journeys to the Polar Regions in Search of Life, the Cosmos, and Our Future Audiobook, by Neil Shubin Play Audiobook Sample

Ends of the Earth: Journeys to the Polar Regions in Search of Life, the Cosmos, and Our Future Audiobook

Ends of the Earth: Journeys to the Polar Regions in Search of Life, the Cosmos, and Our Future Audiobook, by Neil Shubin Play Audiobook Sample
Release Date: February 4, 2025
Coming Soon! The audiobook will be available for pre-order on January 14, 2025. Check back on that date to pre-order this title for the Feb 4, 2025 release! Available for pre-order on: January 14, 2025
Read By: Fred Berman Publisher: Penguin Audio Listen Time: at 1.0x Speed 5.17 hours at 1.5x Speed 3.88 hours at 2.0x Speed
Release Date: February 4, 2025
Format: Unabridged Audiobook ISBN: 9798217011957

Quick Stats About this Audiobook

Total Audiobook Chapters:

13

Longest Chapter Length:

68:28 minutes

Shortest Chapter Length:

11 seconds

Average Chapter Length:

35:37 minutes

Audiobooks by this Author:

4

Other Audiobooks Written by Neil Shubin: > View All...

Publisher Description

The bestselling author of Your Inner Fish takes readers on an epic adventure to the North and South Poles to reveal the secrets locked in the ice about life, the cosmos, and our planet’s future.



Renowned scientist Neil Shubin has made extraordinary discoveries by leading scientific expeditions to the sweeping ice landscapes of the Arctic and Antarctic. He’s survived polar storms, traveled in temperatures that can freeze flesh in seconds, and worked hundreds of miles from the nearest humans, all to deepen our understanding of our world.

 

Written with infectious enthusiasm and irresistible curiosity, Ends of the Earth blends travel writing, science, and history in a book brimming with surprising and wonderful discoveries. Shubin retraces his steps on a “dinosaur dance floor,” showing us where these beasts had populated the once tropical lands at the poles. He takes readers meteor hunting, as meteorites preserved in the ice can be older than our planet and can tell us about our galaxy’s formation. Readers also encounter insects and fish that develop their own anti-freeze, and aquatic life in ancient lakes hidden miles under the ice that haven’t seen the surface in centuries. It turns out that explorers and scientists have found these extreme environments as prime ground for making scientific breakthroughs across a vast range of knowledge.

 

Shubin shares unforgettable moments from centuries of expeditions to reveal just how far scientists will go to understand polar regions. In the end, what happens at the poles does not stay in the poles—the ends of the earth offer profound stories that will forever change our view of life and the entire planet.

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"Ends of the Earth is a cosmic adventure story written in ice. It’s a tale of glaciers that flow like rivers and scientists who fall through crevasses and animals that evolve their own anti-freeze to allow them to thrive in extreme cold. Shubin brings alive some of the harshest and most fragile places on Earth, revealing the exquisite dance of time and physics and biology that created these icy realms and all the creatures that inhabit them, as well as the perils these regions now face in our rapidly-warming world. In the ice, Shubin has discovered the story of our time."

— Jeff Goodell, New York Times bestselling author of The Heat Will Kill You First

Quotes

  • In the hands of an expert storyteller and brilliant biologist, the topics of ice and the polar regions becomes a fast-moving, fascinating book that combines travelogue and natural science discovery. From encountering the arctic wooly bear caterpillars and hearty tardigrades to polar fish that manufacture their own ‘anti-freeze,’ I found Ends of the Earth to be a delightful and compelling read.

    — Dr. Daniel J. Levitin, New York Times bestselling author of I Heard There Was a Secret Chord and Successful Aging
  • For me, as a theoretical physicist who works at his desk with coffee always nearby, Neil Shubin's brand of science is exhilarating, scary, and a bit alien. But adventuring to forbidding climes teaches us amazing things about our Earth and life on it. We're fortunate to have such a gifted writer on the scene to bring back these stories.

    — Sean Carroll, New York Times bestselling author of Quanta and Fields
  • What a remarkable planet we live on—wildest at its cold and lovely poles. This compelling volume should summon us to defend that cold, the vital task for our time on earth.

    — Bill McKibben, New York Times bestselling author of The End of Nature
  • In the hands of an expert storyteller and brilliant biologist, the topics of ice and the polar regions becomes a fast-moving, fascinating book that combines travelogue and natural science discovery. From encountering the arctic wooly bear caterpillars and hearty tardigrades to polar fish that manufacture their own ‘anti-freeze,’ I found Ends of the Earth to be a delightful and compelling read.

    — Dr. Daniel J. Levitin, New York Times bestselling author of I Heard There Was a Secret Chord and Successful Aging
  • What a remarkable planet we live on—wildest at its cold and lovely poles. This compelling volume should summon us to defend that cold, the vital task for our time on earth.

    — Bill McKibben, New York Times bestselling author of The End of Nature
  • Ends of the Earth is a gripping tale of polar exploration, from a scientist and science writer of the highest caliber. A veteran of fossil-hunting expeditions at both poles, Neil Shubin writes with such warmth about an icy subject. Come for the adventure but stay for the science, as Shubin’s captivating storytelling will give you a new appreciation for some of the harshest and most mysterious places on Earth.

    — Steve Brusatte, University of Edinburgh paleontologist and New York Times bestseling author of The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs
  • Ends of the Earth is a gripping tale of polar exploration, from a scientist and science writer of the highest caliber. A veteran of fossil-hunting expeditions at both poles, Neil Shubin writes with such warmth about an icy subject. Come for the adventure but stay for the science, as Shubin’s captivating storytelling will give you a new appreciation for some of the harshest and most mysterious places on Earth.

    — Steve Brusatte, University of Edinburgh paleontologist and New York Times bestseling author of The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs
  • Ends of the Earth is a cosmic adventure story written in ice. It’s a tale of glaciers that flow like rivers and scientists who fall through crevasses and animals that evolve their own anti-freeze to allow them to thrive in extreme cold. Shubin brings alive some of the harshest and most fragile places on Earth, revealing the exquisite dance of time and physics and biology that created these icy realms and all the creatures that inhabit them, as well as the perils these regions now face in our rapidly-warming world. In the ice, Shubin has discovered the story of our time.

    — Jeff Goodell, New York Times bestselling author of The Heat Will Kill You First
  • What a remarkable planet we live on—wildest at its cold and lovely poles. This compelling volume should summon us to defend that cold, the vital task for our time on earth.

    — Bill McKibben, New York Times bestselling author of The End of Nature
  • Ends of the Earth is a gripping tale of polar exploration, from a scientist and science writer of the highest caliber. A veteran of fossil-hunting expeditions at both poles, Neil Shubin writes with such warmth about an icy subject. Come for the adventure but stay for the science, as Shubin’s captivating storytelling will give you a new appreciation for some of the harshest and most mysterious places on Earth.

    — Steve Brusatte, University of Edinburgh paleontologist and New York Times bestselling author of The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs
  • Ends of the Earth is a gripping tale of polar exploration, from a scientist and science writer of the highest caliber. A veteran of fossil-hunting expeditions at both poles, Neil Shubin writes with such warmth about an icy subject. Come for the adventure but stay for the science, as Shubin’s captivating storytelling will give you a new appreciation for some of the harshest and most mysterious places on Earth.

    — Steve Brusatte, University of Edinburgh paleontologist and New York Times bestselling author of The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs
  • "What a remarkable planet we live on—wildest at its cold and lovely poles. This compelling volume should summon us to defend that cold, the vital task for our time on earth.

    — Bill McKibben, New York Times bestselling author of The End of Nature
  • "For me, as a theoretical physicist who works at his desk with coffee always nearby, Neil Shubin's brand of science is exhilarating, scary, and a bit alien. But adventuring to forbidding climes teaches us amazing things about our Earth and life on it. We're fortunate to have such a gifted writer on the scene to bring back these stories.

    — Sean Carroll, New York Times bestselling author of Quanta and Fields
  • Ends of the Earth is a gripping tale of polar exploration, from a scientist and science writer of the highest caliber. A veteran of fossil-hunting expeditions at both poles, Neil Shubin writes with such warmth about an icy subject. Come for the adventure but stay for the science, as Shubin’s captivating storytelling will give you a new appreciation for some of the harshest and most mysterious places on Earth.

    — Steve Brusatte, University of Edinburgh paleontologist and New York Times bestselling author of The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs
  • Enlightening and often, well, chilling, Shubin's evaluation of the polar world masterfully merges discovery, appreciation, and concern.

    — Booklist, starred review
  • The world offers two vast laboratories: the Arctic, most specifically Greenland, and the Antarctic… There are plenty of surprises to discover in both places [in this] accessible, nontechnical narrative.

    — Kirkus
  • In this dazzling report, Shubin, a biology professor at the University of Chicago, examines what the Earth’s poles reveal about the planet and the universe...  Shubin offers hair-raising accounts of his own polar voyages... This enlightens and amazes.

    — Publishers Weekly, starred review
  • The world offers two vast laboratories: the Arctic, most specifically Greenland, and the Antarctic… There are plenty of surprises to discover in both places [in this] accessible, nontechnical narrative.

    — Kirkus
  • Enlightening and often, well, chilling, Shubin's evaluation of the polar world masterfully merges discovery, appreciation, and concern.

    — Booklist, starred review

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About Neil Shubin

Neil Shubin is the author of the bestselling Your Inner Fish, which was chosen by the National Academy of Sciences as the best book of the year in 2009. Trained at Columbia, Harvard, and the University of California at Berkeley, Shubin is associate dean of biological sciences at the University of Chicago. In 2011 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

About Fred Berman

Fred Berman has won several AudioFile Earphones Awards as well as the prestigious Audie Award for best narration. He is an actor of theater, film, and television whose credits include Broadway’s The Lion King, Law & Order, and Directing Eddie, among others. He was featured in Entertainment Weekly for his work on the Walking Dead audiobook series.