Scale, by Geoffrey West, is a thought provoking book about coarse grained quantitative network theories which concern the entire human species and its interaction with the environment. Although verbose — as I think the intended audience is upper high school and entry-level college — it is clear in its depictions and explanations. This book is an important summary of really profound work and research performed at the Santa Fe Institute. And it is a great introduction to understanding power laws and scaling in biology and network topologies.
Category: ecology (Page 1 of 2)
Dr. Eric Smith’s lecture on the origin of life really challenged everything I thought I understood regarding how life functions and possibly originated on Earth. Make sure to watch the question and answer at the end for some good points regarding panspermia and Miller’s experiments.
Know nothing about mushrooms, fungi, or mycelia? — Paul Stamet’s Mycelium Running opens a door to an exotic universe beneath your feet. Fungi and their interaction with ecosystems upturn all of what you thought you knew about the button mushrooms on your salad or pizza. Fungi, simply and truely, are incredibly important and amazing organisms. And as Stamets proves, they are a powerful tool to maintain the world for all of our descendants — not to mention their ability to provide a healthy and functioning human immune system.
Fungi Perfecti is Stamet’s family owned company for those interested in supporting mycoremediation, mycoforestry, mycofiltration, or mycopesticides.
These videos provide a fascinating look at the history and ongoing development of Auroville (City of the Dawn). Founded by Mirra Alfassa as a project of the Sri Aurobindo Society, it provides an example of a community designed to inspire unity and lead the way forward for humanity.
City of the Dawn is a summary of the city’s foundation and history since the late 1960’s and early 1970’s:
Auroville Towards a Sustainable Future shows the incredible ecological work required to repair and grow the land needed to sustain the city:
Millennium is a powerful and inspiring documentary series with David Maybury-Lewis.