Seeing Ourselves in a Grain of Sand

All the molecules in our bodies have roots in the formation and maturation of the earth. Sam Kean reviews Neil Shubin's "The Universe Within."

Jan. 11, 2013 3:10 p.m. ET

Science can really deflate you. You think human beings are special? Well, crows can use tools, chimps can paint, and Neanderthals had bigger brains. Heck, octopuses can open jars. Is Earth special? Not really. Astronomers have found well more than a thousand planets orbiting distant stars, and they will probably find a "mirror Earth"—a rocky doppelgänger with liquid water—within the year. Surely, though, the universe itself is unique, almost by definition. Afraid not. Physicists now routinely invoke the "multiverse" with its bazillions of parallel universes to explain how space-time works. As Neil...

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