Lives on Earth

3.8 Billion Years

  • The Democracy of Living Things

    For most people, it seems easy and natural to view the range of all living things in a hierarchy of one kind or another. Among animals, humans are “higher” and the big (whales) and the cute (dogs) rank above the… Continue reading

  • The Immortal Jellyfish

    There is a species of small jellyfish that will, when it is sick or injured, instead of dying, fully regenerate itself. It will sink “to the bottom of the ocean floor, where its body folds in on itself—assuming the jellyfish… Continue reading

  • Neil deGrasse Tyson on the Hidden Costs of a Cosmic Perspective

    In Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, Neil deGrasse Tyson explains nothing less than the workings of the entire cosmos. But in the conclusion he raises a more demanding problem: where, in all these astral wonders, do we humans fit in?        The… Continue reading

  • Life Is Precious, Life Is Cheap

    Life is precious. Every organism, from human to microbe, self-arranges so it can energize itself, repair itself, avoid danger, resist nonexistence. A tomato plant defies death by staying alive and then by living beyond itself through its seeds. Life must… Continue reading

  • The Pioneers: Archaea and Bacteria

    The most basic categories of living things are not what they used to be. In the past they included Plants and Animals, but no longer. Today the three Domains are all named for organisms too small to see. Plants and… Continue reading

  • What Birds Are Saying

    Sitting on a wood piling at a marina, a motionless Herring Gull stared out over the boats. Humans strolled by on one side of the gull, boats purred by on the other. High overhead, two other gulls appeared, flying lazily… Continue reading

  • Six Interesting Ways That Cars Are Like People

    Cars are a favorite metaphor and mirror for us humans, from their vroom for the young to the creaks and breakdowns for the aging. The comparisons would seem to have been exhausted, but I keep running into new ones. Here… Continue reading