Book excerpt: Perspectives on Biogeochemistry is an account of the origin of forces and matter at the dawn of time, and the way they evolved to planet Earth of today. Several fields of natural sciences are consulted to present a coherent view on the cycling of terrestrial elements and molecules, both organic and inorganic, in the course of time. Critical data are drawn together from astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, and geology in order to provide some understanding of the complexity of the system Earth. In this book, E.T. Degens abstracts his knowledge of biogeochemical interactions acquired in more than thirty years of research and teaching. Students and anyone in the natural sciences wanting to familiarize themselves with phenomena prevailing at the periphery of their disciplines will profit by the very thorough and personal view of this pressing topic.