Date Time Story of Earth and question no scientist ever asked The planet’s evolution and ‘microbial poop’ were just some of the wide ranging topics US mineralogist Dr Robert Hazen covered at the UNSW Centre for Ideas event last night. Earth, seen here from the moon, has gone through 10 stages of mineral evolution, according to Dr Robert Hazen from Carnegie Institution of Washington’s Earth and Planets Laboratory. Credit: Shutterstock. When acclaimed US mineralogist Robert Hazen was a young boy, he always collected and organised things like stamps or coins. But then he started collecting fossils and minerals, and he realised they told a story.