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Five times our world has stood on the brink of Armageddon - it´s been incinerated, frozen, drained, flooded and smothered by poison gas. We are very lucky to be alive...

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Apocalypse, now?

Death by fire, ice, poison gas, suffocation, asteroid. At five moments through history life on Earth was dragged to the very edge of extinction.

Now, armed with revolutionary technology, scientists are uncovering clues about what caused these catastrophes. Deep-diving into past worlds of dragonflies the size of seagulls and fishes with guillotines for mouths, they explore how - against all the odds - life survived and what these ominous chapters can tell us about our future.

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´His evocative prose brings the "incomprehensible eternities" of ancient history vividly alive...A remarkable journey into the deep past that has much to teach us about the future of our planet.´
Guardian

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Peter Brannen is an award-winning science journalist whose work has appeared in the Guardian , Wired, New York Times , Washington Post and Slate , amongst other publications. You can follow him on Twitter @PeterBrannen1. He lives in Boston.

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