Edinburgh-born Graham Hancock (1950-) grew up in India and studied at Durham University. He is an investigative journalist and author whose 1992 book on the location of the Ark of the Covenant set him on the track of ancient civilisation. He has since spent his life connecting the dots of prehistory, much to the annoyance of established academia who see this as their sole domain. Nevertheless, Hancock’s mission is to encourage further research and much-needed scientific probing of the status quo.

He and his wife Santha, a photographer, spent seven years carrying out more than a thousand scuba dives around the coasts of India, Malta and the Far East. Their book ‘Underworld: Flooded Kingdoms of the Ice Age’ (2002) showed many fascinating stone structures that were submerged after the 400ft. rise in sea level at the end of the Younger Dryas period.

Hancock is anything but an armchair researcher and travels the world to discover clues for himself. His genius is in piecing together peer-reviewed studies in geology, archaeology and astronomy with religious and ancient writings. ‘Fingerprints of the Gods’ (1995), ‘Magicians of the Gods’ (2015) and ‘America Before’ (2019) are his exploration into what caused the last ice age and almost obliterated our technologically-advanced ancestors.

(Top image of columns at Göbekli Tepe 11,600 years old: Cobija at Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0)

Dr. Joseph Black (1728-99) discovered carbon dioxide (CO2) in 1754 whilst working on his thesis at the University of Glasgow. He is said to have been the first to use gravimetrics, or the weighing, of gases to ascertain changes. On heating magnesium carbonate, Black noticed that it produced what he called ‘fixed air’: an odourless, colourless gas denser than dry air and with different properties. In 1756 he found it in expelled breath and the general atmosphere, and saw that it combined with other chemicals to form compounds.

John Dalton (1766-1844) devised the first atomic theory and created useful symbols for chemical elements, including carbon and oxygen. He discovered that carbon dioxide is composed of two oxygen atoms and one carbon atom, hence CO2. He presented this in Manchester in 1803 but did not publish until 1805 and then 1808 in ‘A New System of Chemical Philosophy’.

Carbon dioxide is put to use in many industrial and commercial ways. For example, it is collected as a by-product of processes such as ammonia production for use in the food and drink industry. It is also released from magma and the burning and fermentation of organic matter. Essential for life, its level in the atmosphere is currently very low.

(Image from the carbon cycle, i.e. crops: Derek Harper at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0)