Add graphic showcasing evolution of life (#270)

* Add graphic showcasing evolution of life

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* Update date format

* Fix small mistakes

* Add pangea, rewrite intro

* Fix citation, improve intro. Thanks alanblue

* Add indicator for full span and months

* Color improvements

book/history/sourdough-history.tex

@@ -9,11 +9,78 @@
     lessons from the past.
 \end{quoting}
 
-Sourdough has been made since ancient times. The exact origins of fermented
+The story of sourdough bread begins in prehistoric oceans. These oceans were the
+birthplace of all life on Earth. To better envision the vast history of
+our planet, lets create a timeline in one~year/365~days. On this scale,
+January~1 signifies Earth's
+formation 4.54~billion years ago. Midnight on December~31 is the present.
+Each day represents roughly 12~million years. This technique simplifies the
+complexity of time but also renders the extraordinary expanse of our planet's
+history into a more graspable timeframe. We humans, are in fact a recent
+addition to our planet, so young that we made our first appearance on
+the evening of December~31.  It seems that humans managed to arrive just
+in time to join the celebration at the end of the year.
+
+The story of sourdough bread begins in ancient oceans. These oceans were the
+birthplace of all Earth's life. To better envision the vast history of
+our planet lets create a timeline of 1~year. On this scale, January~1 signifies Earth's
+formation 4.54~billion years ago. Midnight on December~31 is our present.
+Each day represents roughly 12~million years. This technique simplifies the
+complexity of time but also renders the extraordinary expanse of our planet's
+history into a more graspable frame. We humans are in fact a recent addition
+to our planet, so young that we made appearance on the evening of December~31.
+It seems that humans managed to arrive just in time to join
+the celebration at year's end.
+
+On March~25, the oceans birthed the first single-celled bacteria. In these
+waters, another single-celled life form, \emph{archaea}, also thrived. These
+organisms inhabit extreme environments, from boiling vents to icy waters.
+
+\begin{figure}[!htb]
+\begin{center}
+  \input{figures/fig-life-planet-sourdough-timeline.tex}
+  \caption[Sourdough microbiology timeline]{Timeline of significant events
+    starting from the first day of Earth's existence,
+    divided into months, and extending to the present day,
+    marked at midnight. This visualization shows the pivotal steps
+    of life and sourdough on earth.}%
+\end{center}
+\end{figure}
+
+Whoever comes first first, bacteria or archaea, remains debated. For three
+months (or approximately 1.1~billion years), these life forms dominated
+the oceans. Then, on June~25 in an highly unlikely event, an archaeon consumed a bacterium.
+Instead of digesting it, they formed a symbiotic relationship. This led to the
+first nucleated organisms, marking an evolutionary milestone. This event lead
+to the development of plants, fungi and also ultimately humans.
+
+Life stayed aquatic for another three months.
+On October~4, bacteria first colonized land. By October~15, the
+first aquatic fungi appeared. They adapted and, by November~24, had colonized
+land.
+
+By December~3rd, yeasts emerged on land. This laid groundwork for bread-making.
+Jump 140~million years to December~14, and dinosaurs arose. Just a couple
+of days after their appearance on December~17 the super continent pangea
+started to rift apart, reshaping the continents into their current form.
+The dinosaurs reigned until December~29 when they faced extinction.
+Another 25~million years later, or our timeline's 2~days after the dinosaur
+extinction, humans appeared.
+
+A few hours later after the arrival of humans, a more subtle culinary
+revolution was unfolding. By  \num{12000}~BC, just 5 seconds before our metaphorical
+midnight, the first sourdough breads were being baked in ancient Jordan. A blink of
+an eye later, or 4~seconds in our time compression, Pasteur's groundbreaking work
+with yeasts set the stage for modern bread-making. From the moment this book
+began to take shape to your current reading, only milliseconds have ticked by~\cite{Yong_2017}.
+
+Now delving deeper into the realm of sourdough, it can likely be traced to aforementioned
+Ancient Jordan~\cite{jordan+bread}. Looking at the earth's timeline sourdough
+bread can be considered a very recent invention.
+
+The exact origins of fermented
 bread are, however, unknown. One of the most ancient preserved
-sourdough breads has been excavated in Switzerland.
-However, based on recent research, some scientists speculate that sourdough
-bread had already been made in \num{12000}~BC in ancient Jordan~\cite{jordan+bread}.
+sourdough breads has been excavated in Switzerland~\cite{switzerland+bread}.
 
 \begin{figure}[ht]
   \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{einkorn-crumb}
@@ -28,7 +95,7 @@ dough and at her return a few days later, she noticed that the dough had
 increased in size and smelled funky. She decided to bake
 the dough anyway and was rewarded with a much
 lighter, softer, better tasting bread dough. From that day
-on she continued to make bread this way.
+on she continued to make bread this way~\cite{egyptian+bread}.
 
 Little did the people back then know that tiny microorganisms
 were the reason the bread was better. It is not clear when