The Medea Hypothesis: Is Life on Earth Ultimately Self Destructive?

  • Peter Ward | University of Washington, Dept of Biology and Earth and Space Sciences

In looking at the latest discoveries from the geological record, could it be that Earth is its own worst enemy? This new theory is in stark contrast to James Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis-that life sustains habitable conditions on earth. But what if Earth is no “good mother” but instead more of a Medea: the mythical mother who kills her own children? Could life by its very nature threaten its own existence? In fact, all but one of the mass extinctions that have struck Earth was caused by life itself. Our Earth is witnessing an alarming decline of diversity and biomass-a decline brought on by life’s own “biocidal” tendencies. Yet life on earth doesn’t have to be lethal; there is a way out but we must find it soon.

Speaker Details

Peter Ward is a paleontologist and professor of Biology and Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Washington, Seattle, and the author of many bestselling works of popular science, including Life As We Do Not Know It, Rare Earth, On Methuselah’s Trail and The Life and Death of Planet Earth. His professional career has included teaching posts at Ohio State University, the NASA Astrobiology Institute, the University of Calgary and the California Institute of Technology. He was elected as a Fellow of the California Academy of Earth Sciences in 1984.The full schedule of upcoming talks in the Microsoft Research Visiting Speaker Series can be found here: http://sharepoint/sites/visitingspeaker/default.aspx

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