Gadagkar, R (1998) Biology in the 21st Century - back to Stamp Collection? In: SCampus- A bi-annual from IISc, 1998 (Spring). p. 5.
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Abstract
By all accounts the 21st century (and probably beyond) belongs to the life sciences. The diversity and complexity of life forms that have evolved and stayed on (not to speak of the vast majority that evolved and then became extinct) surpasses that of non living objects by orders of magnitude. Our insatiable demands for food, medicines, clothing and agents of biological control of pests will perpetually retain the need to understand and exploit the living world. This and the growing realization that human activities are destroying habitats and driving biological species to extinction have begun to make people to sit up and wonder. Arguably the most influential spokesman for conservation of the earth's biodiversity, the Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson has said "the worst thing that can happen - will happen - is not energy depletion. economic collapse, limited nuclear war, or conquest by a totalitarian government. As terrible as these catastrophes would be for us, they can be repaired within a few generations. The one process ongoing, that will take millions of years to convert is the loss of species diversity by the destruction of natural habitats. This is the folly our descendants are least likely to forgive us".
| Item Type: | Journal Article |
|---|---|
| Publication: | SCampus- A bi-annual from IISc |
| Publisher: | Indian Institute of Science |
| Additional Information: | The copyright of this article belongs to the Authors. |
| Department/Centre: | Division of Biological Sciences > Centre for Ecological Sciences |
| Date Deposited: | 19 Mar 2021 08:37 |
| Last Modified: | 31 May 2022 09:35 |
| URI: | https://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/68153 |
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