Ends of the Earth

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. "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

“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 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 FirstNeil Shubin is the bestselling author of Your Inner Fish, The Universe Within, and Some Assembly Required. He is the Robert R. Bensley Professor of Organismal Biology and Anatomy at the University of Chicago. He was host of the Emmy Award–winning PBS miniseries Your Inner Fish. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2011. Educated at Columbia, Harvard, and the University of California, Berkeley, he lives in Chicago.