Richard Fortey is a senior paleontologist at the Natural History Museum in London and a Fellow of the Royal Society. He was Collier Professor in the Public Understanding of Science and Technology at the Institute for Advanced Studies at the University of Bristol in 2002. His books have been widely acclaimed: Life: A Natural History of the First Four Billion Years of Life on Earth (Knopf) was short-listed for the Rhône-Poulenc Prize in 1998, and Trilobite: Eyewitness to Evolution (Knopf) was short-listed for the Samuel Johnson Prize in 2001. His latest book, Earth: An Intimate History (Knopf, 2004), has been called dazzling, remarkable, splendid, and important and timely.Read Less