There's an important interview that Bill Moyers did with famed biologist E. O. Wilson a few years ago, dealing with the issue of the diversity of life on this planet. Like all Moyers' work, it's a truly insightful interview, but there's one particular point that really opened my eyes when I first heard it - right at the beginning, Wilson emphatically states that we've yet to discover the majority of species of life on this planet - perhaps 90% of the life on this planet is unknown to us. And this isn't some wild-eyed lunatic from the fringes of society making this claim, we're talking about one of the most respected and capable scientists alive today.
Given these facts, I was fascinated to see this news item today, about the discovery of a variety of species of life thought to be extinct, or new lifeforms altogether, at the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia.
I've been saying it for years - the true history of life on this planet is still mostly a baffling mystery, and every day, we discover how much we've yet to learn about the nature of reality, the Universe, this planet and ourselves.
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2 comments:
Thank's for the video, nice to hear a sane voice. Wish there were more like him especially in positions of power.
Right? Wilson is an amazing voice in science, and what he says can teach us all some humility.
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