In July this year, the Global Red Report on Endangered Species was updated, and the Yangtze River White Sturgeon was officially included in the list of extinct species.
Soon, the related topic #Yangtze River White Sturgeon was Officially Declared Extinct# appeared in front of the public as the number one hot topic on various social platforms, which forced us to face the fact again - species extinction is not far away from us. They are disappearing in China.
1
Can humans survive the next mass extinction?
Some scientists estimate that about 2 million species became extinct in the 20th century alone. In just 22 years after entering the 21st century, the number of extinct species has reached 902, and an average of 41 species disappear forever from the world every year.
Biologists call the number of species that become extinct per 1 million species per year the background extinction rate . The current background extinction rate of mammals is approximately 0.25, which means that for every 1 million mammals, 0.25 species will become extinct each year.
What is shocking, however, is that we live in an era where species are going extinct at a rate that is much higher than the normal background rate of extinction.
A 2015 paper in the authoritative journal "Science Advances" showed that the extinction rate of mammals on earth is now 20-100 times higher than in the past. If this trend continues, it will only take 250 years for the earth to experience another mass extinction event comparable to the age of the dinosaurs. From this, biologists have come to a terrifying conclusion: the sixth mass extinction of species is occurring.
" Sanlian Life Weekly " also showed a similar unoptimistic inference in this year's issue of biological extinction: scientists have found that our current earth environment is very similar to the initial outbreak of the mass extinction event at the turn of the Permian-Triassic that almost killed the entire earth 250 million years ago. Various indicators such as global warming , seawater acidification, and species extinction rates all show that we are on the verge of another mass extinction event.
In his new book "Searching for Secrets of Nature", the famous popular science writer Wang Ji uses a direct and even slightly accusatory description to show how the sixth mass extinction of species began under the "dominance" of humans:
"About 2,000 years ago, humans came to the Madagascar Islands and almost wiped out all the large animals on the island, such as elephant birds , lemurs , Madagascar hippopotamus , etc. ... More than 1,500 years ago, humans came to the islands located in the Indian Ocean . Several species of giant tortoises on these islands and 1 More than 0 kinds of birds were "annihilated"... When humans first landed on the island of Mauritius, a fat dodo bird, which looked like a broiler, circled around people affectionately, but people still unceremoniously turned them into "roasted chickens." "
The picture is licensed from "Secret Nature"
The author also popularized a law in ecology - the "species-area" law. In other words: The larger the range of human activities, the smaller the living range of other organisms, and the fewer the number of species.
Picture authorized from "Searching for Secrets in Nature"
"Compared with hunting, people Deforestation by humans will cause greater harm to species. Loss of 1% of forest area every year will lead to the disappearance of about 0.25% of species. We estimate very conservatively that there are 2 million species in tropical rainforests. Based on the disappearance rate of tropical rainforests, almost 5,000 species will be lost every year, which is 14 species a day."
- The content is from "Secret Nature"
There are many more species. Due to the lack of continuous historical data, it is impossible to accurately draw conclusions about whether they have become or are becoming extinct. But their extinction itself is a warning of an undeniable reality: The environment around us is undergoing huge changes. How can we, who are also in it, have any luck?
However, it is not only the extinction of species that threatens human survival, but also the possible ongoing geomagnetic reversal .
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Geomagnetic reversal affects not only the natural ecology,
and even human civilization
geomagnetic reversal, that is, the direction of geomagnetic field changes from north to south.
Every magma rock on the earth records the direction of the geomagnetic field when they were formed. By measuring the remanent magnetism in magma rocks of different ages around the world, we can understand the direction of the geomagnetic field at different times.
The fifty-ninth year of Kangxi (1720 AD), Wudalian, Heilongjiang There has been a large-scale volcanic eruption in the pool area. The spouting magma is magnetized by the geomagnetic field. After they cool down, the direction of the geomagnetic field is permanently preserved by these volcanic rocks . After scientific measurements, people found that the direction of the geomagnetic poles more than 300 years ago is basically the same as the direction of the geomagnetic poles today. But this does not prove that the direction of the geomagnetic field is fixed.
introduced in "Searching for Secrets of Nature" that as early as 1906, the French human geographer Blanchard visited China in France. In the southern volcanic area, it was accidentally discovered that the magnetic pole recorded in the rocks was opposite to the geomagnetic pole at that time. Based on this, he speculated that the geomagnetic poles may have reversed.
However, because this inference was too shocking at the time, it was not immediately recognized in the scientific community.
Twenty-three years later, Japanese scientist Motoyama Matsuyama came to the same conclusion after studying volcanic rocks in 36 locations in Asia.
At the same time, Swiss glaciologist Mercanton also became very interested in this hypothesis. From 1910 to 1932, he traveled to many volcanoes around the world and also confirmed the conjecture of "geomagnetic reversal". As a result, the phenomenon of geomagnetic reversal has become one of the most amazing discoveries in earth science in the 20th century.
Picture authorized from "Searching for Secrets in Nature"
Since 2013, the European Space Agency has begun to accurately measure the geomagnetic field through a new generation of geomagnetic satellites. After data analysis, it was found that the geomagnetic intensity is accelerating and weakening, and the rate of change is 10 times that of previous estimates. The geomagnetic North Pole has been moving towards the geographical North Pole since records began in 1840. The displacement in the past 20 years has exceeded the total of the previous 100 years.
So scientists speculate that a new round of geomagnetic polarity A reversal may well be underway. How will this affect us humans? To this end, popular science author Wang Ji consulted Shanghai Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Dr. Li Ligang, who studies geomagnetic polarity reversal, and gave the answer in "Searching for Secrets in Nature".
Dr. Li said: “The geomagnetic polarity reversal period will not have an immediate impact on biology, climate and the environment, but it may pose a direct threat to human low-orbit satellites, communication networks and power transmission networks. "
However, when this special period will arrive and how long it will last, it is still impossible to give a definite answer through existing science and technology. But this does not mean that scientists have gained nothing from exploring this natural mystery.
As Wang Ji said in his new book "Searching for Secrets of Nature": "The reversal of geomagnetic polarity turned from a bold conjecture to an astonishing discovery. It seemed to be a chance encounter by a scientist, but it was actually the fruit of scientific thinking . Science alone is not enough to rely on imagination, but also needs more important evidence - empirical evidence. First observe, then make conjectures, and then look for evidence. to confirm or falsify a conjecture. This is typical scientific thinking. Under the guidance of scientific thinking, the intellectual achievements made by mankind in the past 400 years far exceed the total of the previous 10,000 years. ”
In Wang Jie’s view, searching for mysteries is natural. What we are exploring is not only the causes behind strange phenomena, but more importantly, the way scientists “solve puzzles” in the process.
He introduced 8 fascinating scientific phenomena in "Searching for Secrets of Nature". While vividly describing the causes behind natural phenomena, he also conveyed the pure scientific spirit to us.
For example, when explaining the unsolved century-old mystery in physics- ball lightning, he told us how to treat super Natural phenomenon : "First find evidence for the existence of this phenomenon, then propose a hypothesis to explain the phenomenon, and finally use experiments to verify the hypothesis. The belief that a rational thinker should uphold is: Nothing in this universe is supernatural, and all phenomena that do exist are ultimately natural phenomena , in line with certain natural laws. "
The picture is licensed from "Searching for Secrets in Nature"
When popularizing the light changes of stars, he believed Sherlock Holmes's famous saying "Exclude all impossibilities, and the remaining one, no matter how unbelievable, is the truth" is not applicable in the field of science, especially for astronomy. Humanity has only opened a small corner of the universe, and the assumptions and conjectures we can make now are far from "ruling out all impossibilities."
When revealing the mystery of turbulence, his metaphor for the path of scientific exploration was ideal and romantic: " Solving the mystery of turbulence is like a relay race that has lasted for two centuries. Young scientists took over the baton from their predecessors and continued to run. As they ran, their hair turned white, But there are always young people waiting in front to take over and keep running. ”
Pictures are licensed from “Searching for Secrets in Nature”
Scientific research, what is more precious than the results, is the experience and methods summed up in the process of searching for the truth. There are still many phenomena in the world that cannot be explained by the current scientific level. However, as long as we adhere to the correct scientific research experience and methods, mankind will create a more brilliant and intelligent civilization in the future.
3
Rather than spreading knowledge,
, it is better to say that it is activating the future.
Wang Ji, the author of "Searching for Secrets in Nature", is a professional science popularizer. As a professional science popularizer, in addition to constantly learning and possessing a large reserve of professional knowledge, you must also have the ability to continuously and stably output science popularization content. At the same time, you must also promptly adjust the form of content dissemination according to changes in user appreciation orientation.
At first, Wang Ji mainly wrote books. His works "Strings of the Starry Sky" (Douban score 8.0) and "The Shape of Time: A History of Relativity" (Douban score 8.8) won the 8th Wenjin Book Award; the science fiction novel "Time Cage" won the 2019 Hundred Flowers Literature Award.
Later, with the rise of self-media, he began to create his own science popularization account. The radio program "Science Has Stories" he hosted has been updated for more than 600 episodes so far. He was ranked among the top ten most commercially valuable anchors in Himalaya FM 2019 (second in the overall list), and has been consistently in the top three in the platform technology reputation list all year round.
Later, he was not satisfied with communicating with the public using only words and sounds, so he switched to the field of video, tried to be a director and screenwriter, and produced special effects films for major science and technology museums. His work "The Amazing Universe" won the China Popular Science Writers Association Gold Award in the Popular Science Film and Television Animation Category. The original documentary "Searching for Secrets in Nature" directed by him has been successfully broadcast for two seasons and won the (Popular Science Film and Television Animation Category) Silver Award in the 7th China Popular Science Writers Association Outstanding Popular Science Work Award.
His new book "Searching for Secrets of Nature" is based on the documentary of the same name. How to make books as rich in content as documentaries, or even more watchable than documentaries? Adhering to the pursuit of a professional science popularizer, he expanded the knowledge points such as astronomy, geography, ecology, etc. in the book, updated the latest scientific research progress, and reorganized the relevant knowledge structure, so that readers can clearly perceive the rigorous scientific thinking logic during the reading process.
In order to make popular science books more interesting and readable, the author spent three years collecting materials on the spot, and finally selected more than 200 large high-definition pictures to put into this book, which not only satisfies readers' curiosity about strange natural phenomena, but also makes some scientific principles not too difficult to understand.
In Wang Jie's view, he wrote this book not only to reveal the scientific causes behind mysterious natural phenomena and spread scientific knowledge, but more importantly, to show how scientists use rigorous means and reasonable conjectures to solve many mysteries in nature, spread the true scientific spirit and concepts, and inspire more young generations to join the ranks of scientific exploration and become a backbone force leading the world's science in the future.
"The rise of a great power requires not only the rise of the economy, but also the rise of science and technology and culture. In the past, Chinese children watched European and American scientific documentaries to explore the universe; I hope that in the future, children all over the world will grow up watching Chinese scientific documentaries."
"Searching for the Secrets of Nature" is undoubtedly an important step that cannot be omitted before reaching this milestone.
Recommended reading
The latest masterpiece by the author of Wenjin Award and Hundred Flowers Award
Use rigorous science to reveal the eight unsolved mysteries of nature
"Searching for Secrets in Nature"
"Searching for Secrets in Nature" was created by popular science writer Wang Jie. It explores eight fascinating scientific phenomena around the origin of life, species extinction, stellar light changes, ball lightning, the mystery of turbulence, geomagnetic reversal, exploration of the Cambrian period, and fast radio bursts.
This book is based on promoting the scientific spirit. It uses documentary form to show readers and audiences how scientists solve the mysteries of nature through rigorous means and reasonable conjectures. It not only vividly tells the objective reasons behind natural phenomena, but also highlights every step of scientists' exploration of scientific truth, so that readers can understand what the scientific spirit is.
Based on the documentary, this book adds a lot of expanded knowledge and focuses on displaying the research and results of Chinese scientists. This has a very good scientific communication effect on the public, especially on young people.
