tags: Africa, agriculture, AI, apes, artificial, artificial intelligens, ASPM, atoms, biological diversity, biology, biosphere, biotechnology, birds, bloom, botany, bottom-up, brain, breeding, carbon dioxide, Carl Linnaeus, cells, cell division, chemical vapour deposition, children, chimpanzee, classification, climate, cloning, computers, computer chips, consciousness, cross-fertilisation, Darwin, death, development, DNA, domestic animals, Earth, ecology, economics, ecosystems, egg cell, egoism, electronic devices, elevator, embryo, embryonic stem cells, emotions, energy forests, environment, ethics, evolution, flooding, florigen, flowering, forestry, FOXP2, fullerenes, GDP, genemanipulation, genes, genetics, genetic code, gene manipulation, global change, God, heridity, human being, invisibility, kieselguhr, language, learning, life, materials, medicine, Mendel, molecular biology, molecular electronics, molecules, mutations, MYH16, nano, nanometres, nanotechnology, nanotubes, nano clocks, Nobel, nobel prize, oceans, organs, ozone hole, parkinson, pharmaceuticals, plants, play, poplar, proteins, quantum effects, rain forests, religion, resilience, robots, scanning tunnel microscope, self-awareness, self-consciousness, sex, space, speech, stem cells, top-down, trees, urbanisation, wetlands, Ångström,

carl folke

"Myself, I'm most interested in the Earth's ability to deal with change and continue to develop, what we call resilience."  Read more

question 13: how sick is our planet really?

How's our planet doing actually? To find out, the Earth has been subjected to a thorough health examination of a kind never undertaken before. The first results arrived a couple of years ago.  Read more

question 17: what issue is the most crucial for our survival on earth?

It's easy to be overwhelmed by a feeling of impotence. But even when we see that many important graphs are pointing in horribly wrong directions, there are still some bright spots. What must we do to help the Earth take a turn for the better?  Read more

question 24: can we put a price tag on natural resources?

If a well-functioning wetland is important for a region, can you calculate its value? If a virgin forest is insurance for the future, how does it appear in the country's GDP? If our planet is to survive, economists and biologists will have to collaborate in developing a whole new kind of balance sheet.  Read more

question 28: how closely related are we to other organisms?

All living things are related – some more closely than others. You are actually closer to the mushrooms on your plate than to the lettuce! You can see this if you study the amount of difference and similarity in our genes. Just now, biologists are mapping a common family tree for all life on Earth.  Read more

question 39: what's the price of your lifestyle?

If everyone lived the way the author of this text does, 3.5 Earths would be needed to support the planet's population. Unsettling facts like this spread a sense of guilt... Have you ever really stopped to consider how your lifestyle is affecting the global ecosystem?  Read more

question 40: can wood possibly replace oil in the future?

If oil belonged to the 20th century, it looks as if wood could be the raw material of the 21st century – as indeed it was in earlier times. Good news for a country that's more than half covered by forest. To get back to nature and replace plastics with paper and other wood-based materials we need a whole new kind of engineering. No wonder that protein engineering is a hot research field in a country like Sweden.  Read more

question 48: which species must we preserve for the future?

Is there any point in trying to preserve all the Earth's biological species? Or are some more valuable than others? How can we decide? Modern molecular biology is a big help.  Read more