Two profound changes have shaped the Earth. One happened about 2 billion years ago when our atmosphere became flooded with oxygen and made way for life as we know it.
The other change is happening right now.
“It’s us,” says Ariel Anbar. “It’s what we humans are doing to the planet.”
But this is not another message of the doom and gloom humans have wrought on the Earth. Anbar, President’s Professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration and director for the Center for Education Through Exploration, is decidedly optimistic.
In his KEDtalk, Anbar shows us how innovation is a distinct human tool that can be harnessed to design the future we want to see. Along the way he traces the unlikely arc of his career from studying ancient rocks looking for oxygen to creating video games that challenge conventional wisdom about learning.
Anbar's talk is part of the ASU KEDtalks series. Short for Knowledge Enterprise Development talks, KEDtalks aim to spark ideas, indulge curiosity and inspire action by highlighting ASU scientists, humanists, social scientists and artists who are driven to find solutions to the universe’s grandest challenges. Tune in monthly to research.asu.edu/kedtalks to discover how the next educational revolution will come about, whether space is the next economic frontier and more.
More Science and technology
Lessons on maintaining your humanity in the world of AI technology
AI is not human. But it does a good job of acting like it.It is capable of replicating how we speak, how we write and even how we solve problems.So it’s easy to see why many consider it a threat, or…
When you’re happy, your dog might look sad
When people are feeling happy, they’re more likely to see other people as happy. If they’re feeling down, they tend to view other people as sad. But when dealing with dogs, this well-established…
New research by ASU paleoanthropologists: 2 ancient human ancestors were neighbors
In 2009, scientists found eight bones from the foot of an ancient human ancestor within layers of million-year-old sediment in the Afar Rift in Ethiopia. The team, led by Arizona State University…