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Species Extinction
No civilization, no matter how successful, can last forever. What does the non-detection of intelligent aliens mean for our own longevity?
The “dystopian” biotech imagined in these novels is now changing real lives for the better.
54mins
“How can all the diversity and, sort of, seeming order that's out there in the world emerge from a process dependent upon chance?”
Preindustrial life wasn’t simple or serene — it was filthy, violent, and short. The Industrial Revolution was imperfect, but it was progress.
13mins
“Chance invents and natural selection propagates that chance invention.”
Maybe — just don't expect a carbon copy.
19mins
“So many things could have happened in a different way that we wouldn't be here at all, both individually, for sure, and certainly as a species.”
65 million years ago, a massive asteroid struck Earth. Not only did Jupiter not stop it, but it most likely caused the impact itself.
Dreams of resurrecting lost species didn’t start in Hollywood or Silicon Valley.
If an asteroid hadn't killed off the dinosaurs, humans would almost certainly have never walked the Earth.
Welcome to The Nightcrawler — a weekly newsletter from Eric Markowitz covering tech, innovation, and long-term thinking.
Aliens are often portrayed in popular culture as humanoid. But in reality, intelligent extraterrestrials might take far stranger forms.
Despite billions of years of life on Earth, humans first arose only ~300,000 years ago. It took all that time to make our arrival possible.
Known as the Great Oxygenation Event, Earth froze over as oxygen accumulated in our atmosphere, nearly driving all life extinct.
No matter how you define the end, including the demise of humanity, all life, or even the planet itself, our ultimate destruction awaits.
Whenever someone waxes poetic about terraforming alien worlds, it’s worth taking a moment to consider the ethical implications of the proposal.
Life in the supremely vast cosmos is incredibly rare. We need a new vision for our living planet and for ourselves.
There were at least eight other human species, some of whom existed for far longer than we have. Who were they?
The crisis of the Anthropocene challenges our traditional narratives and myths about humanity's place in the world. Citizen science can help.
John Templeton Foundation
It is generally ineffective, occasionally poisonous, and driving numerous species to the brink of extinction.
Rich data on the global state of our feathered friends presents plenty of bad news — but also some bright spots.
The Black, Caspian, and Aral Seas are the last surviving fragments of a body of water that stretched from Austria to Turkmenistan.
Goodbye, Arabica? Learn to love Liberica.
De-extinction, if it is ever possible, will not be simple.
The dating pool is small — no pun intended.
5mins
CRISPR’s gene drive can defy evolution. Here’s how, explained by Nobel Prize winner Jennifer Doudna.
John Templeton Foundation
This pup puts us one step closer to resurrecting extinct species.
Since our arrival, humans have driven a seven-fold drop in the mass of wild land mammals.
