The Sciences and Evolution

Science began as soon as animals began to test and try to manipulate their surroundings to assist them to gain food, attract a sexual partner or shelter from the elements. Trial and error are the foundations of science, just like evolution. Of course man himself does more then the ape who used rocks and sticks to extract food, branches to protect himself or his family from foe, or rain, or sun.

"The true science and study of man is man." Pierre Charron - moralist, Paris, 1541- 1603

"The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking." Albert Einstein

From the religious meditations of ancient civilisations came observation. Observation led to the recognition of regularity and patterns. Astronomy and its associate astrology revealed the sequences of the universe in Egypt, South America and China. The Sun and the Seasons predicted fertility and counted out days, events and added measurement to the laws of nature. Mathematics became necessary to describe such phenomenon and thus further predictions are made. To observe, ponder, define and then to anticipate - To have an idea, test, consider and test again - To compare and advance - These are the elements by which we have managed to understand and proceed along our accelerating evolution.

The study of nature is a process passed from one to the next, even though it may skip generations.- Democritus (460-370BC) theorised that the ultimate reality was the atom. Swirling in the void, these solid, minute, invisible and indestructible entities combined in an infinite number of patterns to present images to the senses. Little remains of his writings, but it was Epiicurus (342-270BC) who adapted his theories, but his in turn were also lost, but written down by Lucretius (99-55BC) in his great work 'De rerum natura' (The nature of the Universe). A six part poem, which discusses atomic theory, perception, sexual psychology, institutions, language, art and the evolution of the universe, the earth and man.

In the West we have often credited the Greeks with much of our scientific foundation, however much of the beginnings of this had been learned in Egypt. Although not established until the Greek Ptolemys, the great Library of Alexandria was perhaps the greatest think-tank of the ancient world and the fathers of geometry and astronomy had the benefit of the collected wisdom of that Ptolemaic vision, but the sources go further back then that. Man is forgetful and much is lost. What Copernicus thought about the planets revolution around the sun with that great star being the centre of our solar system had already been recognised by Pythagoras in the sixth century BC and some hundreds of years before that in Egypt and each time it was abandoned in favour of more religiously favoured egocentric explanations. We do however advance and appear to do so more rapidly today then makes many of us comfortable.

The Egyptians created the 24 hour day and also discovered the 365 day year ( which turned out to be 365 1/4 days) probably around 4,500 B.C. The Babylonians were able to predict the apparent motions of the Sun, the moon, the planets, the stars and even eclipses. Around the fourth century BC the Greeks built a model to interpret these motions, with the stars fixed on a celestial sphere which rotated about the spherical Earth every 24 hours, and the planets, the Sun and the Moon, moved in the ether between the Earth and the stars. In the second century AD with Ptolemy's system the planets moved in circles upon circles around the Earth. In the sixteenth century, Copernicus’s heliocentric system, could not match the accuracy of Ptolemy's system. It was only with the aid of the telescope in the early seventeenth century that Galileo discovered moons orbiting Jupiter, so why couldn’t the planets orbit the Sun? At the same time, Kepler discovered that the planets moved in ellipses, not circles. Newton later showed that elliptical motion could be explained by gravitational force, and also concluded that the Universe must be infinite. In the nineteenth century, astronomer and mathematician Bessel measured the distance to the nearest star was about 25 million, million miles, whereas the Sun is only 93 million miles. Kant and others suggested that the observable stars of the Milky Way were a lens shaped galaxy with others beyond. In the 1920's Hubble established that there were distant galaxies and they were moving away from us. This expanding universe found an explanation in Einstein's General Theory of Relativity: Einstein introduced the cosmological constant to balance the gravitational force and keep the galaxies apart, but believed it to be a ‘blunder’. (now perhaps being confirmed) From this the Russian, Friedmann in 1917 worked out that the Universe had been born at one moment, about ten thousand million years ago at the point from which the galaxies are fleeing. The British astronomer Fred Hoyle called it the "Big Bang''. In 1965 Penzias and Wilson discovered a cosmic microwave background radiation, the afterglow of the Big Bang, and so it goes on.

"We think of the stars as mere bodies and as units with a serial order indeed but entirely inanimate; but we should rather conceive them as enjoying life and action." Aristotle

'I don't know what I may seem to the world, but, as to myself, I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.'

' What Des-Cartes did was a good step. You have added much several ways, and especially in taking the colours of thin plates into philosophical consideration. If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.'

Isaac Newton was born at Woolsthorpe Manor, near Grantham in Lincolnshire on Christmas Day 1642,(4 January 1643 in the modern Gregorian calendar). He came from a family of farmers but his father had died in October 1642. His father was wealthy, but uneducated. His mother Hannah remarried Barnabas Smith a minister, when Isaac was two years old. He was virtually an orphan in the care of his grandmother, having an unhappy childhood unloved by his grandfather. In 1653 his stepfather died, and he then lived with his mother, grandmother, half-brother, and two half-sisters. He began school in Grantham. Being five miles from his home, he lodged with another family. Described as 'idle' and 'inattentive', he was taken from school by his wealthy mother to manage her estate, but he showed no talent, or interest in this.

An uncle persuaded his mother that he should attend university so Isaac returned to school in 1660, lodging with the headmaster of the school, and apparently showed academic promise. Newton entered Trinity College Cambridge, on 5 June 1661. He was older than most of his fellow students but, to receive an allowance toward expenses, he acted as a servant to other students. Humphrey Babington, a distant relative was a Fellow at Trinity, and possibly his patron. Newton's aimed at a law degree. Although dominated by the philosophy of Aristotle he studied Descartes, Hobbes, and Boyle. Copernican astronomy of Galileo attracted him and also Kepler's optics. In a book titled Certain Philosophical Questions, he wrote "Plato is my friend, Aristotle is my friend, but my best friend is truth".

Newton's interest in mathematics possibly began in 1663 when he bought an astrology book at a fair but could not understand the mathematics. He found that he also knew nothing of geometry, so he read Euclid's Elements and continued to explore. His first original mathematical work seems to have grown out of reading Wallis’s Algebra. Newton was elected a scholar on 28 April 1664 and received his bachelor's degree in April 1665. His scientific genius had not emerged, but it did suddenly when the plague closed the University in the summer of 1665 and he had to return to Lincolnshire. In the next two years he began revolutionary advances in mathematics, optics, physics, and astronomy and he was still under 25.

Newton's first relationship may have been his 20-year roommate John Wickens, while he was a student and professor at Cambridge. Wickens and Newton moved in together to escape the unruly Cambridge student life. John also joined the faculty and later he was laboratory assistant and secretary to Newton.

When Cambridge reopened he was elected to a minor fellowship at Trinity College but, after being awarded his Master's Degree, he was elected to a major fellowship. In 1669 Barrow sent Newton's text De Analysi to London, but it was not recognised. Barrow resigned and was replaced by Newton to the Lucasian Chair, (held now by Stephen Hawking) where as professor his first work was on optics and this was the topic of his first lecture course in 1670. He concluded that white light is not a simple entity for when a beam of sunlight went through a glass prism he noted the spectrum of colours formed.

In 1672 Newton was elected a fellow of the Royal Society and published his first scientific paper on light and colour which was attacked by some. He wanted fame and recognition yet feared criticism and the easiest way to avoid being criticised was to publish nothing. Newton turned in on himself and away from the Royal Society delaying publication of his full optical researches until 1704. Another argument led to a nervous breakdown and when his mother died and he withdrew further into his shell, mixing little with people for many years.

... all matter attracts all other matter with a force proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.

Newton's greatest work was in physics and celestial mechanics, which led to his theory of universal gravitation. By 1666 Newton had early versions of his three laws of motion. Newton's novel idea of 1666 was to imagine that the Earth's gravity influenced the Moon, counter- balancing its centrifugal force. From his law of centrifugal force and Kepler's third law of planetary motion, Newton deduced the inverse-square law. Halley persuaded Newton to write a full treattise of his new physics and in 1687 he published the Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica or Principia as it is known, which is recognised as the greatest scientific book ever written. He analysed the motion of bodies and the results were applied to orbiting bodies, projectiles, pendulums, and free-fall near the Earth. He further demonstrated that all heavenly bodies mutually attract one another. Newton explained the eccentric orbits of comets, the tides and their variations, the precession of the Earth's axis, and motion of the Moon as perturbed by the gravity of the Sun. This work made Newton an international leader in scientific research.

James II became king of Great Britain on 6 February 1685. He had become a Roman Catholic in 1669, however rebellions arose. Newton was a staunch Protestant and when the King tried to insist that a Benedictine monk be given a degree without taking any examinations or swearing the required oaths, Newton opposed this and when William of Orange landed in November 1688 and James fled to France the University of Cambridge elected Newton, now famous for his strong defence of the university, as one of their two members to the Convention Parliament on 15 January 1689. Newton was seen as a leader of the university and one of the most eminent mathematicians in the world. However, his election to Parliament let him see a life in London which appealed to him more than the academic world in Cambridge.

Newton never married and formed one notable close relationship with a young handsome mathematician Fatio de Duillier, a Swiss-born mathematician resident in London. Fatio was attracted to science celebrities. Some passionate letters between the two men survive, recording several trips and overnight lodgings these men had together. Fatio was 25 and Newton was 46 at the beginning of their four year friendship. This was six years after Newton had parted from Wickens. Soon after Fatio moved to Europe Newton suffered a second nervous breakdown in 1693, and retired from research. Newton's relations with Fatio had undergone a crisis. Fatio became ill; then family and financial problems threatened to call him home to Switzerland, which distressed Newton enormously. In 1693 he suggested Fatio move to Cambridge, and Newton would support him, but this did not eventuate. Through early 1693 the intensity of Newton's grew until without surviving explanation, both the relationship and correspondence ended. Four months later, Samuel Pepys and John Locke, both personal friends of Newton, received bitter letters of accusation. Pepys was was told that Newton would see him no more and Locke was accused of trying to entangle him with women. Many theories evolved as to the cause of the breakdown: poisoning from his alchemy experiments; frustration with his researches; the ending of his one profound relationship with Fatio; and problems with his religious beliefs linked with depression, that he suffered most of his life.

Newton became Warden of the Royal Mint in 1696 and Master in 1699, but did not resign his positions at Cambridge until 1701. He became a very rich man. In 1703 he was elected president of the Royal Society and was re-elected each year until his death. He was knighted in 1705 by Queen Anne, the first scientist to be so honoured for his work.

The story that Newton's theory of universal gravitation was prompted by a falling apple, is probably based on fact although it may not have fallen on his head. The first account was recorded by William Stukeley following a dinner.

'The weather being warm, we went into the garden and drank tea, under shade of some apple-trees, only he and myself. Amidst other discourses, he told me, he was just in the same situation, as when formerly, the notion of gravitation came into his mind. It was occasioned by the fall of an apple, as he sat in contemplative mood. Why should that apple always descend perpendicularly to the ground, thought he to himself. Why should it not go sideways or upwards, but constantly to the earth's centre.'

"Gravity cannot be held responsible for people falling in love." -- Albert Einstein

"When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, it seems like two minutes. When you sit on a hot stove for two minutes, it seems like two hours. That's relativity." -- Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, Germany on March 14, 1879 to no practicing Jewish parents Hermann and Pauline. They moved to Munich and then to Milan. He had not finished secondary school and failed an exam to allow him to study electrical engineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. He spent the next year in Aarau, Switzerland and finished high school. Einstein returned in 1896 to the Swiss Institute. In 1898 he fell in love with a Hungarian classmate, Mileva Maric, and in 1900 graduated as a secondary school teacher of mathematics and physics. He became a Swiss citizen in 1901 and avoided Swiss military service on the grounds that he had flat feet and varicose veins.

In January 1902 Mileva had a daughter Lieserl at her parents home in Hungary but they put her up for adoption and she disappears from the records. He worked at the Swiss patent office in Bern from 1902-1909 and completed a number of publications in theoretical physics, written in his spare time without close contact with scientific literature or colleagues. In 1905 Einstein earned a doctorate from the University of Zurich for a thesis 'On a new determination of molecular dimensions' and his Special Theory of Relativity was born. On June 30th, he submitted his paper, "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies" to the leading German physics journal. At age 26, he formulated the equation e=mc2. In 1908 he sent a second paper to the University of Bern and became a lecturer there. Einstein then became associate professor of physics at the University of Zurich. In that period Einstein’s father died 1902, he married Mileva 1903 and they had a son Hans Albert 1904. A second son Eduard was born in 1910. In 1911 they move to Prague and on to Zurich in 1912

Einstein was recognized throughout German-speaking Europe as a leading scientific thinker and went on to professorships at the German University of Prague and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. In 1914 he took up the most prestigious and best-paying professorship at the Kaiser-Wilhelm Gesellschaft in Berlin. Albert and Mileva divorced in1914, WWI began and the following year he completed the General Theory of Relativity. In 1917 he nearly died but was nursed back to health by his cousin, Elsa whom he married on May 29, 1919. That year British eclipse expeditions confirmed his predictions, Einstein was mobbed by the popular press and The London Times ran the headline on 7 November 1919:-

'Revolution in science - New theory of the Universe - Newtonian ideas overthrown.'

He was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics in 1922. At 53 his is identified as a Jew and he began to feel the effect of Nazi Germany, so in 1933 they moved to Princeton in the United States, but Elsa died in 1936. When WWII began Einstein wrote to President Franklin D. Roosevelt warning that Germany could develop an atomic bomb and urged him to undertake nuclear research. This contributed to Roosevelt's decision to fund the Manhattan Project. He became an American Citizen in 1940 but retained his Swiss citizenship. In 1944 he made a contribution to the war effort by hand writing his 1905 paper on special relativity and putting it up for auction. It raised six million dollars, the manuscript is in the Library of Congress.

His first wife Mileva died in 1949 and on April 16,1955 Einstein died of heart failure. Einstein was cremated at Trenton, New Jersey at 4 pm on the day of his death. His ashes were scattered at an undisclosed location. He left his scientific papers to the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, which he had raised funds for, served as a governor of from 1925 to 1928 but he had turned down a post there in 1933 being critical of its administration. Also after the death of the first president of Israel in 1952, the Israeli government offered the presidency to Einstein. He refused.

During his life he travelled constantly, changed his citizenship several times, was a pacifist, a Zionist and changed man's view of the universe.

"He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would fully suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, senseless brutality, deplorable love-of-country stance, how violently I hate all this, how despicable an ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action! It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder." -- Albert Einstein

"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." -- Albert Einstein

One of the greatest figures in the history of scientific thought Nicolaus Copernicus was born in Torun, Poland on 19 February, 1473 to a middle class family. His father Niclas, a merchant, emigrated from Krakow, and had four children, two boys who adopted a clerical career, the older girl became a Cistercian nun and an Abbess, and the younger married. Nicolaus, was ten years old when his father died. His uncle took charge of the children.

He studied mathematical sciences and Greek at the university of Krakow and at the universities of Bologna and Padua in Italy and Canon Law at the university of Ferrara. At that time Physicians made use of astrology. Copernicus gave astronomical lectures in Rome, and it was there that he began work on a new astronomy. When he returned to Poland, he practiced medicine, at Heilsberg, treating bishops and princes, and especially the poor, though his official employment was as a canon in the cathedral chapter, working under his maternal uncle, a Bishop. In 1537 King Sigismund of Poland submitted his name as a candidate for the vacant Episcopal seat of Ermland, so it is probable that, in later life, he had entered the priesthood.

In 1516 he was nominated administrator of the diocesan castle of Allenstein. After four years he returned to the Frauenburg. Three years later he became administrator of the diocese. Public office drew him into the study of finance. In 1522 he wrote a memorandum on monetary reforms, which developed and led to the King of Poland making him deputy counselor on the financial regulations of Prussia to 1529.

Copernicus visited Rome, and in about 1513 and wrote a short account of what has since become known as the Copernican theory, namely that the Sun (not the Earth) is at rest in the centre of the Universe. A full account was not published until the very end of his life, under the title On the revolutions of the heavenly spheres (De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, Nuremberg, 1543). Copernicus is said to have received a copy of the printed book for the first time on his deathbed, dying at Frauenburg on 24 May of a cerebral hemorrhage.

Copernicus's heliostatic cosmology involved giving several distinct motions to the Earth. It was thus considered implausible by the vast majority of his contemporaries, and by most astronomers and natural philosophers of succeeding generations before the middle of the seventeenth century. Its notable defenders included Johannes Kepler (1571 -1630), Galileo Galilei (1564 - 1642) and was given credence by Newton's theory of universal gravitation (1687). He challenged the geocentric cosmology that had been dogmatically accepted since the time of Aristotle. In direct opposition to Aristotle and to the 2d-century astronomer Ptolemy, Copernicus proposed that a rotating Earth revolved with the other planets about a stationary central Sun.

Anticipated by the Pythagoreans and Aristaechus of Samos whom he had read, and by the Muslim astronomer Ibn al-Shatir and certain Christian writers, the new theory that Copernicus proposed had a mixture of both radical and conservative elements. While reordering of the structure of the universe, Copernicus still held to the ancient doctrines of solid celestial spheres, perfect circular motion of heavenly bodies and Aristotelian physics of motion. He also clung to the Ptolemaic representation of planetary motion by means of complicated combinations of circles called epicycles. Copernicus marked the beginning of the scientific revolution, and of a new view of a greatly enlarged universe although he did not see it as infinite.

Copernicus used the towers of Heilsberg, of Allenstein, and of Frauenburg as observatories, and his great work "On the Revolutions of the Celestial Bodies" reveal his unremitting observations of the sun, moon, and planets. His reputation was such that as early as 1514 the Lateran Council, convened by Leo X, asked for his advice on the reform of the ecclesiastical calendar. He believed that the length of the year and of the months and the motions of the sun and moon were not yet sufficiently known to attempt a reform. This spurred him on to make more accurate observations, which, seventy years later, were the basis for the working out of the Gregorian calendar.

Twenty-five years after his university career, he had finished his great work, but hesitated a long time in publishing, considering imitating the Pythagoreans, who transmitted the mysteries of their philosophy only orally to their disciples for fear of subjection to the contempt of critics. His friends who had become interested in the new theory convinced him to write an abstract for them, copies of which have been discovered in Vienna and Stockholm. In this commentary Copernicus stated his theory in the form of seven axioms, reserving the mathematical part for later. This was in 1531, and then the heliocentric system began to spread. In 1533 Albert Widmanstadt lectured before Pope Clement VII on the Copernican solar system. Three years later Copernicus was urged by Cardinal Schonberg, to publish his discovery, or at least to have a copy made at the cardinal's expense. But all the urging of friends was in vain, until a younger man George Joachim Rheticus was sent to spend two years at the feet of his new master (1539-41). Soon after his arrival he sent a sixty six page "First Narration" of the new solar system to a scientific friend in Nuremberg. This was printed in Danzig (1540) and Basle (1541). Rheticus next obtained the manuscript of a preliminary chapter of the great work on plane and spherical trigonometry. Copernicus, now sixty-eight years, yielded, to the entreaties of Cardinal Schonberg, and others to give up his manuscripts for publication. Rheticus was to edit the work and the manuscript was to be published at Wittenberg, but owing to the hostility prevailing there against the Copernican system, only the chapter on trigonometry was printed (1542). The two copies of the "First Narration" and of the treatise on trigonometry, are in the Vatican Library. Schöner in Nuremberg, together with Osiander, engaged the printing-house of Petreius. Rheticus tried to resume his chair of mathematics in Wittenberg, but on account of his Copernican views, he had to resign. He and Copernicus were prevented attending to the edition. Copernicus became paralyzed on the right side and became weak in memory and mind many days before his death. The first copy of the "Six Books on the Revolutions of the Celestial Orbits" was handed to him the very day he died. Fortunately he could not see what had been done. Knowing the attitude of Luther and others to the heliocentric system, the word "Hypothesis" was added to the title page, and the preface of Copernicus was replaced by one contrasting with that of Copernicus, warning the reader not to expect anything certain from astronomy, nor to accept its hypothesis as true. The dedication to Pope Paul III was retained, as was the text.

Opposition to the new system was first raised by Protestant theologians for Biblical reasons and continued to our own days. Seventy-three years after publication, the work of Copernicus was forbidden by the Catholic Church "until corrected", and in 1620 these corrections were indicated. Nine sentences, claiming certainty, were omitted or changed and reading of the book was allowed. In 1758 it disappeared from the revised Index. (i.e. forbidden books) The real preface of Copernicus was returned on the four hundredth anniversary of the author's birthday, with all of Copernicus' corrections were given as foot-notes. A monument was erected to Copernicus in Warsaw in 1830, and another at Torun in 1853. Rheticus, and others called Copernicus the second Ptolemy, and his book the second "Almagest." His genius is that he grasped the truth centuries before it could be proved.

Within our Galaxy there are four hundred thousand million stars (400,000,000,000) and throughout the universe about a million stars exist for every grain of sand on our planet and that is impressive and daunting.

I have thought that as everything has a balance or an opposite, and like a positive and a negative, they can come together and cancel each other out, so too it is conceivable that god or whatever you may like to call the prime mover split nothingness in two and created the universe. Distance or linear dimensions give us matter and time is only another measure of moving from one point to another, so perhaps we are only a thought in the mind of a creator. Matter and time drawn from nothing and it may possibly end with a return to a state of nothingness and an end to time or ???

Period -Years BC
Big Bang 12,000 Million or more		midnight the first day Let there be light The universe begins with an explosion, expands and continues to do so at about a million miles and hour until a possible Big Crunch when all collapses back to the infinite smallness of the beginning and matter and time no longer exist or then again, as more recently thought, it continues to expand forever until it dissipates. Opinions change, develop and continue to provoke argument amongst those of us who know so little.
Pre Cambrian 4,500 Million		3 pm and seas and earth and lights in the firmament and plants upon the earth. Our Solar system begins as a swirling mass of gas which gravity draws together in lumps. The Earth begins to form and the earth cools from liquid to a hard crust. Water condenses to seas. Seaweeds and soft bodied invertebrate animals appear. Sounds a bit like Genesis.
Cambrian 600 Million		10.48 pm and let the waters bring forth creatures. Seas form and retreat. Volcanic activity shapes and reshapes the surface. Sea worms, jellyfish, starfish sponges and trilobites up to 18 inches. Such a slow process of evolving accidents and survival without thought.
Ordovician 500 Million		11 pm Sand and mud build up on the ever changing sea floors. The first vertebrates appear with bones and armour. Life becomes stronger, but development begins to accelerate. If one can call millions of years acceleration.
Silurian 440 Million		11.03 pm Mountain Ranges begin to form. Leafless plants begin to grow on the land. Sea Scorpions grow to 9 feet and large coral reefs develop. Sounds like nature is becoming beautiful as we understand it.
Devonian 400 Million		11.12 pm Land Areas increase and become green with 40 ft. trees and eventually ferns. Fish and 20 ft. sharks evolve and life leaves the sea in the form of invertebrate millipedes, mites, spiders and wingless insects.
Carboniferous 350 Million		11.18 pm Sea beds rise and land sinks to swamps. Coal comes from this period. Giant 100 ft. trees, amphibious 15 ft. Salamander-like animals live in swamps. Reptiles breed on land and insects develop wings.
Permian 270 Million		11.28 pm Climate varies and earth movements occur. Deciduous plants appear. Land animals, particularly reptilian become dominant. At 250 Million years the first Asteroid Extinction.
Triassic 225 Million		11.33 pm Deserts and shrub covered mountains in a hot dry world. Carnivorous fish shaped Ichthyosaurs evolve in the sea as do flying fish and early lobsters. Reptiles dominate and then come warm blooded mammals. Six inch dinosaurs appear as do flies, termites and cockroaches.
Jurassic 180 Million		11.38 pm and fowl that may fly above the earth Climate becomes wetter and lakes and rivers form. Eroded mountains are hills and conifers, treeferns and cycads with flower like cones surround large reptiles and the first birds, Archaeopteyx, with feathers from scales and Pterosaurus with wings of skin. 84 ft. Diploducus weighs 35 tons and can only survive in swamps. Mammals remain no bigger then rats. .
Cretaceous 135 Million		11.44 pm River deltas and large mountains arise. The climate is mild and the seasons bring flowers. Sea reptiles and giant turtles. Dinosaurs dominate and birds develop wings similar to today or strong swimming sea birds. Mammals while still remaining inconspicuous, develop placental mode of growth.
Eocene 70 Million		11.52 pm and the beasts of the earth and cattle and every creeping thing Tropical and volcanic with the development of the Atlantic and Indian oceans. Flowering plants and deciduous plants dominate. Many reptiles and the dinosaurs are extinct around 65 Million years with the next Asteroid impact. The mammals are now free to develop and whales adapt to life in the sea. Early elephants, horses pigs, cows and monkeys appear
Oligocene 40 Million		11.55 pm Earths crust moves and a cooler climate diminishes the tropical forests and promotes grasslands and the spread of grass eating mammals. Dogs, cats and bears evolve and a tail-less primitive ape appears.
Miocene 25 Million		11.57 pm Movements of the Earth's crust join Europe and Asia and push up the Himalayas. Mild damp climate promotes growth of large cedars, maple and oak trees. 60ft. sharks elephants grow and spread and apes migrate.
Pliocene 11 Million		11.58.28 pm Continents and oceans begin to take present form. Giant sharks become extinct and most animals are similar to what we know today. The apes thrive and Australopithicus walks upright on the open country and may be our ancestor.
Pleistocene 1 Million		7.2 seconds to midnight and man after His image Extreme climate change with successive ice ages and only hardier plants survive. Ape like creatures have grown more intelligent and use stone implements to cut and skin animals and thus the transition to man.
Holocene 10 Thousand		less then a second to midnight of that first day The ice retreats, seas rise, forests and vegetation spread and man learns to dominate the animals and the land. Civilisation evolves and soon written history is set down. We have truly arrived. Now we arrogantly begin to destroy in milliseconds what took so long to evolve.
5,000 Million from now		10 am the following day Our Sun explodes and our Solar System comes to an end.