Between the birth of the universe and eternity are an incredible number of key events that trace the emergence of the physical world, our earth, the appearance of life, and the ascent of humans and their intellectual culture. Most books trace only one of these threads of events through time so that you rarely get a sense of how episodes in astronomy or geology impact human history. This book features over 2,400 events culled from the scientific literature and from future speculation to fill-in our piece of eternity with meaningful events that made us who we are as individuals, a species, and as a living system. Presented in 'sound-bite' form with over 300 colorful illustrations, this book offers a guide to our small portion of eternity, and how by taking possession of it we can become its Users rather than passive travelers. This is an abridged, black/white version of the full-color original book.