gems, geology

This book is basically a retrospective of the writings/musings of John Saul, the noted geologist who discovered the John Saul ruby mine in Kenya. These essays touch on the great questions of Origins. The human adventure began when people first started to share complex ideas. A very early set of shared ideas provided a reasoned scheme that was both religious and scientific that would enable souls to take the Milky Way to the domain of the immortal gods. Other essays present cancer as originating when damaged tissues lose control over individual cells. Liberated cells multiply and may vary in ways that are incompatible with the functioning of multi-celled creatures, of humans in particular. Cancer first emerged during the Cambrian Explosion itself. Four essays discuss the survival of deep terrestrial impact-scars akin to those on the Moon, but far less easy to see. Such scars provide our planet's initial conditions. Fractures on the rim-zones of the scars guide plate tectonics and the deposition of minerals, and are implicated in at least one mass extinction.This book touches on little-discussed aspects of prehistory, history, the explosion of life during the late Precambrian, cancer research, and regional geology. Saul's writings and ideas represent some of the most original in the field of gemology, tying together not just the origins of gems, but the origins of human civilization itself. Highly recommended!