Eventually, humans invented agriculture, which could be understood as a way of turning the natural world into a tool for our use. There's evidence that we have been domesticating crops and animals for at least 15,000 years, adapting ecosystems to… — Annalee Newitz Copy Share Image
“She wasn’t sure which motivation made better fuel for innovation: naïve but ethical beliefs, or the need to survive.” — Annalee Newitz Copy Share Image
Humans are a great survivor species but our survival will be pretty grim if all of the plants and animals we depend on die… — Annalee Newitz Copy Share Image
Amphibians are dying out like crazy, and frogs and salamanders may be largely extinct by the end of the twenty-first century. Imagine an animal that begins its life in the water, but ends it on land - already, that's pretty weird. But, also, a lot of them are incredibly tiny and look wildly improbable. They have funny little toes, they… — Annalee Newitz Copy Share
“It didn’t just boost your concentration. It made you enjoy work. You couldn’t wait to get back to the keyboard, the breadboard, the gesture… — Annalee Newitz Copy Share Image
Survivor species tend to have huge populations, so they can afford to lose many individuals and still survive as a species. They also tend… — Annalee Newitz Copy Share Image
In fact, the early demographer Thomas Malthus believes that the only way the human population would ever check itself was by running headlong into… — Annalee Newitz Copy Share Image
Obviously it depends on how you define a word like "evolution," because of course we have been evolving - both biologically and culturally -… — Annalee Newitz Copy Share Image
I try to be realistic and pragmatic. I have a lot of hope for humanity as a species, but obviously as individuals we can… — Annalee Newitz Copy Share Image
The fact is that humans have been shaping the genetics of what they eat for thousands of years. Genetic engineering simply speeds up the… — Annalee Newitz Copy Share Image
In terms of fiction, there are a number of writers who are thinking about the future of the environment whose work complements mine. Kim… — Annalee Newitz Copy Share Image
“As UC Berkeley economics professor Brad DeLong put it to me: You get famine if the price of food spikes far beyond that of some people's means. This can be because food is short, objectively. This can be because the rich have bid the resources normally used to produce food away to other uses. You also get famine when the… — Annalee Newitz Copy Share
