Tasmanian history is a study of human isolation unprecedented except in science fiction - namely, complete isolation from other humans for 10,000 years. — Jared Diamond Copy Share Image
“With the rise of chiefdoms around 7,500 years ago, people had to learn, for the first time in history, how to encounter… — Jared Diamond Copy Share Image
Federal elections happen every two years in this country. Presidential elections every four years. And four years just isn't long enough to… — Jared Diamond Copy Share Image
Why did human development proceed at such different rates on different continents for the last 13,000 years? — Jared Diamond Copy Share Image
But this was the only way of life that humans knew for their first 6m years on the planet. In giving it… — Jared Diamond Copy Share Image
Twenty years ago, you might have been pessimistic and said there's no hope. But these days, some of our very biggest companies… — Jared Diamond Copy Share Image
I decided that now is the time to start doing the things that really interest me and I find important. It was… — Jared Diamond Copy Share Image
Twelve thousand years ago, everybody on earth was a hunter-gatherer; now almost all of us are farmers or else are fed by… — Jared Diamond Copy Share Image
Take air quality in the United States today: It's about 30 percent better than it was 25 years ago, even though there… — Jared Diamond Copy Share Image
Thousands of years ago, humans domesticated every possible large wild mammal species fulfilling all those criteria and worth domesticating, with the result… — Jared Diamond Copy Share Image
We scientists have fantasies of being uniquely qualified to make great discoveries. Alas, reality is cruel: most of us are replaceable. For… — Jared Diamond Copy Share Image
Bird taxonomy is a difficult field because of the severe anatomical constraints imposed by flight. There are only so many ways to design a… — Jared Diamond Copy Share Image
What did the last Easter Islander say as he chopped down the last tree? The Easter Islanders didnt have anthropologists. — Jared Diamond Copy Share Image
“We come to conquer this land by his command, that all may come to a knowledge of God and of His Holy Catholic Faith;… — Jared Diamond Copy Share Image
“With the rise of chiefdoms around 7,500 years ago, people had to learn, for the first time in history, how to encounter strangers regularly… — Jared Diamond Copy Share Image
Human societies vary in lots of independent factors affecting their openness to innovation. — Jared Diamond Copy Share Image
No government is here forever. And there are other forces - the most potent force in our society, in fact, big business - doing… — Jared Diamond Copy Share Image
“Those parasites pass to a person from an eaten animal, but the virus causing laughing sickness (kuru) in the New Guinea highlands used to… — Jared Diamond Copy Share Image
“...invokes the supposed stimulatory effects of their homeland's cold climate and the inhibitory effects of hot, humid, tropical climates on human creativity and energy.… — Jared Diamond Copy Share Image
“Throughout the Americas, diseases introduced with Europeans spread from tribe to tribe far in advance of the Europeans themselves, killing an estimated 95 percent… — Jared Diamond Copy Share Image
History followed different courses for different peoples because of differences among peoples' environments, not because of biological differences among peoples themselves — Jared Diamond Copy Share Image
We study the injustices of history for the same reason that we study genocide, and for the same reason that psychologists study the minds… — Jared Diamond Copy Share Image
I decided that now is the time to start doing the things that really interest me and I find important. It was in the… — Jared Diamond Copy Share Image
