Tim Flannery

The Sense of an Endling

In the early nineteenth century, the idea of species extinction was an alien concept. That changed after an expedition to Iceland in search of the last of the great auks.

No Place Like Home

In the naturalist Jonathan Kingdon’s latest book, Origin Africa, the boundaries between humans and animals soften, then simply disappear.

Ready to Rumble

A new book by the volcanologist Clive Oppenheimer details the gifts and destruction brought by volcanoes, and the sublimity and terror experienced in their presence.

Monotreme Dreams

Australia’s egg-laying monotremes and pouch-carrying marsupials may seem to be outliers, but they’re as well suited to their environment as any other mammal.

It’s Not Easy Being Green

George Monbiot argues that none of the most rapidly spreading alternative farming methods can help save our food system from impending crisis.

In Hot Water

“The decline of coral reefs is accelerating so quickly that we may live to see the end of them.”

Flies Like Us

Jonathan Balcombe’s Super Fly explores the immense world of flies.

Out of Savannastan

A new book provides convincing evidence that our earliest direct ancestors evolved in Europe, and that they were walking upright as early as six million years ago. But it is overly confident in its challenge to the idea that the genus Homo arose in Africa.

Why Did They Vanish?

Recent advancements in archaeology and genetics have granted us previously unimaginable insights into Neanderthal life.

In the Soup

Tracing the research into the earliest beginnings of life on earth.

Pandemic Journal, March 30–April 5

Brief dispatches by New York Review writers documenting the coronavirus outbreak around the world, including Danny Lyon in Bernalillo, Andrew McGee in New York, Nicole Rudick in South Orange, and more.

The First Mean Streets

Australia: The Fires and Our Future

After these raging bushfires, I hope that Australia’s federal government will create a full national strategy for climate adaptation. But even that may prove to be too much. The best hope for change lies not with central government but with the states and industry.

Man’s Biggest Friend

The origins of the elephant–human relationship date back into prehistory.

Our Twisted DNA

‘She Has Her Mother’s Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity’ by Carl Zimmer

Hive Mentalities

Thor Hanson’s ‘Buzz: The Nature and Necessity of Bees’ and Lisa Margonelli’s ‘Underbug: An Obsessive Tale of Termites and Technology’

The Big Melt

Sometimes, it seems, threats to our future become so great that we opt to ignore them.

The Tree Whisperers

Dogs in Wolves’ Clothing?

Raised by Wolves

Humans and dogs have been companions for at least 30,000 years