“But even peasants within agrarian states were likely to take more interest in raising productivity when they had secure access to land… — David Christian Modern era Copy Share Image
Our goal is to see Big History become a normal part of high school curricula. I'd love to see it being taught… — David Christian Become Copy Share Image
Learning to domesticate the horse was a sort of energy revolution. — David Christian Energy Copy Share Image
“Quantum physics shows that it is in the nature of reality to be unpredictable.” — David Christian Nature Copy Share Image
When very large stars die, they create temperatures so high that protons begin to fuse in all sorts of exotic combinations, to… — David Christian Begin Copy Share Image
Modern scientific knowledge appeared piecemeal. Historians wrote about human history; physicists tackled the material world; and biologists studied the world of living… — David Christian About Copy Share Image
“As A. J. McMichael writes: “Each species is an experiment of Nature. Only one such experiment, Homo sapiens, has evolved in a… — David Christian Motivation Copy Share Image
I have this fantasy that in future negotiations over climate change - instead of going into that room and saying, 'I'm defending… — David Christian Change Copy Share Image
“As the previous chapter showed, mobile communities of foragers have good reasons to limit population growth. But if they settle down, those… — David Christian Change Copy Share Image
I believe human beings mark a threshold in the development of the planet, of course, but it is only part of the… — David Christian Also Copy Share Image
“as Joel Mokyr has argued, technological innovation is unlikely to happen quickly where those who work lack wealth, education, and prestige, and… — David Christian Education Copy Share Image
“Machiavelli’s descriptions of the strategic and tactical rules of this world are valuable despite an element of caricature: A Prince, therefore, should… — David Christian Art Copy Share Image
“All knowledge arises from a relationship between a knower and an object of knowledge.” — David Christian Knowledge Copy Share Image
“Living organisms are constructed, for the most part, from compounds of carbon and hydrogen. Carbon is critical because of its astonishing flexibility.… — David Christian Biology Copy Share Image
“defines domestication as “the human creation of a new form of plant or animal—one that is identifiably different from its wild ancestors… — David Christian Copy Share Image
“As an anonymous wit is supposed to have put it: "Hydrogen is a light, odorless gas which, given enough time, changes into… — David Christian Enough time Copy Share Image
“new forms of contraception, new methods of child rearing, and new forms of education and public welfare have provoked a fundamental renegotiation… — David Christian Children Copy Share Image
“it takes photons of light just over 8 minutes to reach Earth, 150 million kilometers away.” — David Christian Copy Share Image
All religions, all indigenous traditions, all origin stories provide a large map of where you are. — David Christian Indigenous Copy Share Image
...from schools to universities to research institutes, we teach about origins in disconnected fragments. We seem incapable of offering a unified account… — David Christian Accounts Copy Share Image
“Innovation ensured that each cycle normally reached a higher level than its predecessor, but innovation was normally too slow to prevent an… — David Christian Innovation Copy Share Image
Living organisms are created by chemistry. We are huge packages of chemicals. — David Christian Biology Copy Share Image
If historians don't tell stories at the scales of creation myths, someone else will. — David Christian Creation Copy Share Image
