Remember the Epic

Mnemotic Device to Remember the Epic of Evolution

Do you need an easier way to remember what happened when in the Epic of Evolution? David Bryson, MD, suggests the following mnemotic device as an easy framework for remembering what happened when. Although these times are not exact, they are in the ballpark.

5x10^9 ,8 ,7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0

Explanation
5x10^9 (about 5 billion years ago) the birth of the earth
5x10^8 - (about 5oo million years ago) the first fish
5x10^7 - (about 50 million years ago) the first monkeys
5x10^6 - (about 5 million years ago) the first humans
5x10^5 - (about 500 thousand years ago) the first babies with brains getting much bigger after birth
5x10^4 - (about 50 thousand years ago) the first language
5x10^3 - (about 5000 years ago) the first writing, the first cities, the first armies
5x10^2 - (about 500 years ago) the first printed books, the hemispheres merge
5x10^1 - (about 50 years ago)the first commercial computers, technology escalates
5x10^0 - (the first 5 years of the 21st century) detection of human-caused global climate change.

This first appeared at http://www.mnemonic-device.eu/BigHistory

For more information, contact David Bryson at davidbry@ktc.com.