Age of the Earth research. Most geological samples from Earth are unable to give a direct date of the formation of Earth from the solar nebula because Earth has undergone differentiation into the core, mantle, and crust, and this has then undergone a long history of mixing and unmixing of these sample reservoirs by plate tectonics, weathering and hydrothermal circulation. All of these processes may adversely affect isotopic dating mechanisms because the sample cannot always be assumed to have remained as a closed system, by which it is meant that either the parent or daughter nuclide (a species of atom characterised by the number
How the Snake Lost Its Legs many of the, "nuts and bolts of evolution, deeper than just natural selection," are on display in the book, revealing, "precisely what genetic/physiological mechanisms are being selected for." The molecular biologist Arnaud Martin observes that, "As children, we have all wondered about 'the How and the Why' of animal features, and if you are reading this it is in fact quite possible that a similar inquisitiveness still burns within you. The tone of "How the Snake Lost its Legs" finds its roots in the famous "Just So Stories" of Joseph Rudyard Kipling by tickling this curiosity with the formulaic "How