Editorial: "Black-hole eruption nearby is a warning for us all"
THE end could come with a bang – a nearby supernova that bathes Earth in deadly gamma rays. Or it might come with a whimper – a supervirus that somehow proves lethal to every living cell on the planet. Neither is remotely likely, but nor are they impossible. Yet thinking about them raises an intriguing question: what would happen to Earth if every living thing were to die tomorrow?
More than you might think. Life is far more than a trivial infestation atop the physical structure of our planet. Living organisms play a major role in a wide range of seemingly lifeless processes, from climate and atmospheric chemistry to the shape of the landscape and even, maybe, plate tectonics.
"The signature of life has gone everywhere – it's really modified the whole planet," says Colin Goldblatt, an earth-systems scientist ...
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