R. J. Graham

The Sun is slowly brightening, and in hundreds of millions of years its heat would become lethal for Earth. Fortunately, the built-in planetary thermostat — the carbon cycle — when overheating triggers rocks to absorb carbon dioxide faster, cooling the climate.

Imagine an artist whose canvas is an entire planet, and whose palette is molecules drinking starlight. His brush is billions of years of evolution, and his painting is a spectral portrait visible even from another star system.