As the ages passed, the pressure of layers above and heat from inside the earth broke down and reassembled these simple plants and animals into chains of carbon atoms bristling with hydrogen.

FORBES: The Promise And Pitfalls Of Canada's Oil Sands

They are home to the strangest ecosystems known, in which organisms get by without sunlight, using as an alternative source of energy the sulphurous gases spewed from deep inside the earth.

ECONOMIST: 20,000 leagues under the sea

In the latest expedition, Whiteread, who won the 1993 Turner Prize for her concrete cast of the inside of a building, spent her time in the Artic walking, while McEwan wrote an essay on rescuing "the Earth from our own depredations".

BBC: NEWS | Entertainment | Gormley highlights climate change