Life is possible on Earth because the climate is favorable for it to flourish. In particular, the average range of surface temperatures on Earth allows for abundant liquid water, which is essential for life as we know it. Earth’s average surface temperature has changed over time. But for most of Earth history it has fluctuated within a range that allows for liquid water in the oceans and in land water bodies. Temperature on our planet is controlled, in part, by the fact that we have a thin atmosphere of gases surrounding us; this thin layer acts to hold in some…
Humans are starting to be recognized as an overwhelming forcing factor modulating biosphere dynamics. In this view, the Earth system can be interpreted as entering in a geological era that can be called the Anthropocene, the Technocene or even Capitalocene, depending on the conceptual stance adopted. Human modification of the Earth system has created new dynamics and connections that are causing local ecosystems to behave in new ways, while also having an impact on distant people and places. At the advent of the Anthropocene, life is being pushed to its limits the world over; we are currently living through the…
Living in society has existed since the dawn of human civilization, the history of human society has been characterized by the release of restrictions and the acquisition of freedom through improved capabilities. Moving from hunting society to rural society, humans gained and increased the capacity to produce food, which freed them from hunger. With this, since the existence of Homo Neanderthals and later Homo sapiens, the concept and style of society has been changing over time, evolving with its ways of dealing with different aspects and situations. All life, including human life, ultimately depends on the wellbeing of our host…
Life is really weird. Life is unlike any other phenomenon in physics. Stars, electrons, and black holes are all amazing in their own ways. Life is self-organizing chemistry which reproduces itself and passes on its evolved characteristics, encoded in DNA. In thermodynamics terms, it has the ability to reduce local entropy or disorganization, thus locally contravening the law of thermodynamics. In more biological terms; life is the arrangement of molecules with qualities of self-sustenance and self-replication. It’s a bit more … only life invents, and the first thing life invents is itself. Life must be described in terms of its…
