Privileged Planet: Our Thin, Exquisitely Delicate Atmosphere

Gonzalez and Richards write in The Privileged Planet about the set of remarkable coincidences that underlie our planet's ability to support intelligent life and that simultaneously allow us a nightly view to the stars, something that wouldn't be possible looking through a thick, opaque cover.

It takes a time-lapse moving picture like this (courtesy of NASA and editor Alex Rivest) to get a really clear sense of how thin and exquisite is the film of gases that surrounds our planet. As an infor...