Editorial

摘要

When we think about the history of our planet, humankind’stenure on Earth has been relatively brief. Although the timelinehas been short, the imprint of human endeavor and its resulting scientifi c pursuit well exceeds the brevity of its sojourn.Already the Universe had been some 9 billion years in themaking when, a little over 4.5 billion years ago, a disturbancecaused the massive cloud of dust and gases of the nascentsolar system to collapse. As the nebula caved inwardly, theswirling collective of materials forged the sun at its center.The sun took form and matter, gleaned from a disc of residue material, began to clump and gave rise to the planets.Eventually the dust settled and the solar system formed rank,garnering the oblate spheroid we now call Earth its advantageous positioning as the third sphere from the sun.