💡 Biodiversity Loss Is the Greatest Menace on Earth

The latest from Nautilus and the wider world of science. [View in browser](| [Join Nautilus]( Together with Did a friend forward this? [Subscribe here.]( Hello there Nautilus readers, and thanks for being with us. Today we hear from Craig Foster about the greatest menace on Earth. Plus, in the news: Does it matter if empathic AI has no empathy, and how did cockroaches end up following us everywhere? I feel pretty good about my own answer to your question today (on choosing a scientist’s life to live), and for your free story, find out what the novelist Cormac McCarthy was like from someone who spent decades discussing big ideas with him. Wishing you the best! —Brian Gallagher The latest from Nautilus ENVIRONMENT Biodiversity Loss Is the Greatest Menace on Earth Craig Foster on his 3 greatest revelations while writing Amphibious Soul. BY CRAIG FOSTER I’ve spent 12 years and 4,400 dives eye to eye with otters, crabs, octopus, cuttlefish, rock suckers, and many other exquisite creatures of the Great African Seaforest. I’ve learned directly from them and the underwater tracks they leave. I know their secret lives, and I still have so much to learn. They have filled my intellect with a fundamental truth and woven it around my heart. [Keep on reading]( DISCOVERIES The Top Science News This Week How a Company Convinced Its Scientist the Forever Chemicals She Found in Human Blood Were Safe Her bosses halted her work but kept selling products with toxic compounds. [ProPublica→]( Does It Matter If Empathic AI Has No Empathy? “It is one thing when loved ones die or stop loving you; it is another when you realize they never existed.” [Nature Machine Intelligence→]( Why We’re Endurance Runners New evidence reinforces the idea that we evolved to tire out our prey by keep up the chase. [Nature Human Behavior→]( How Cockroaches Followed Us Everywhere Solving a 250-year-old mystery. [PNAS→]( How Nature Affects Our Minds The surprising and lasting psychological benefits of even just a small dose of nature. [The Guardian→]( Do AI Chatbots Have Human-Level Theory of Mind? OpenAI’s GPT-4 struggles at detecting faux pas but performs as well as, or better than, humans at recognizing false beliefs and misdirection. [Nature Human Behavior→]( Scientists Calculated the Energy Needed to Carry a Baby. Shocker: It’s a Lot In humans, the energetic cost of pregnancy is about 50,000 dietary calories — far higher than previously believed, a new study found. [The New York Times→]( The “Goldilocks” Zone of Habitable Planets Is Likely Outdated The number of planets that could support life may be far greater than previously thought, a recent discovery suggests. [Big Think→]( ADVERTISEMENT Restoring the Planet, One Mission at a Time [Planet Wild]( is a community of people who finance efficient projects aimed at saving animals, oceans and forests. Every month, [Planet Wild]( pools member contributions and funds nature restoration where it really matters. This is all documented in monthly videos, so you regularly get to see what impact your support creates. No contribution is too small. Start from just $6/month and cancel anytime you want. If you care about nature, you can now do something to protect it. [Join Planet Wild]( and get your first month for free! [Join Now]( WE ARE CURIOUS TO KNOW... If you could live the life of any scientist, who would you choose? Let us know! Reply to this newsletter with your response, briefly explaining your choice, and we’ll reveal the top answers. (This question was inspired by ([“A Closer Look at the Science of Mirror Neurons.”]() Top Answers to Our Previous Question(On Falling in Love with What You Once Didn’t Like) • I have found myself in love with two things I once didn’t like: opera and bluegrass. What changed me was love for the musician. Opera became good for me when I heard a recording of my mother singing it. She had become withdrawn and depressed after her college concert days and I would never have heard her if I hadn’t found some old tapes after she passed. I listened to connect with her and then began listening to other singers. My son took up bluegrass in high school and my love for him opened me to a love for his music. Your free story this Tuesday! ARTS The Cormac McCarthy I Know The president of the Santa Fe Institute shares his insights into the novelist, with whom he has discussed science, writers, and ideas for 20 years. BY DAVID KRAKAUER The Cowan Campus of the Santa Fe Institute (SFI) is a renovated extension of the adobe home of Patrick J. Hurley, the United States Secretary of War from 1929 to ’33 and Ambassador to China in 1945. [Continue reading for free→]( Tales From the Underground “I can imagine the most surreal creature and there is a chance—however small—that it exists there.” That’s painter Carlos Hiller quoted in Cara Giaimo’s [story]( “What an Artist Sees in the Deep Sea” about the curious marine life thriving deep beneath the waters surrounding Costa Rica. There, undersea mountains provide a home to “everything from millennium-old corals to brand new baby octopuses.” Hiller accompanied scientists on an expedition to this mysterious ecosystem and painted what he saw over the course of 20 days at sea. Now you can [watch]( or [listen]( to the story of his odyssey, and who better to read about undersea mountains than the lead singer of an underground rock band? Join Tina Hallady of the Philly punk group Sheer Mag as she takes you on a voyage to the bottom of the ocean, through the eyes of an artist. You can also check out Sheer Mag’s latest album Playing Favorites from Jack White’s Third Man Records and catch them [on tour]( throughout May. [WATCH]( [LISTEN]( P.S. A black hole’s “plunge region” has come into view, according to [new research]( in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Albert Einstein predicted that, at a certain point, matter trapped near a black hole would stop spiraling toward it and abruptly dive in. “Think of it like a river turning into a waterfall—hitherto, we have been looking at the river,” said lead author Andrew Mummery, an astrophysicist at University of Oxford. [“This is our first sight of the waterfall.”]( Today’s newsletter was written by Brian Gallagher Thanks for reading.[Tell us](mailto:brian.gallagher@nautil.us?subject=&body=) your thoughts on today’s note. 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