💡 The End of Species

The latest from Nautilus and the wider world of science. [View in browser](| [Join Nautilus]( Together with Did a friend forward this? [Subscribe here.]( This Tuesday, check out the top science news and the latest from Nautilus—plus your free story of the day [READ NAUTILUS]( DISCOVERIES The Top Science News This Week [How to Spot Signs of Life in a Grain of Otherworldly Ice]( A single speck of frozen water, emitted from the likes of Enceladus or Europa, is all it takes to identify material from a cell. [Science Advances→]( [Persia Was a Hub for Homo sapiens First Leaving Africa]( Researchers use genetic evidence and models of long-gone ecosystems to infer where humans would have settled out of Africa before spreading out into Europe and Asia. [Nature Communications→]( [Future AI May Be Like the Borg, from Star Trek, But Good]( The potential upsides of a networked collective AI. [Nature Machine Intelligence→]( [The Largest-Ever Map of the Universe’s Active Supermassive Black Holes]( It includes around 1.3 million quasars from across the visible universe and could help scientists better understand the properties of dark matter. [Simons Foundation→]( [We May Give More Viruses to Animals Than They Give to Us]( What makes a virus more likely to jump from one host to another? [Nature Ecology & Evolution→]( [Amazon Warrior Women of Greek Legend May Really Have Existed]( Excavations of bronze age graves show skeletons with fingers “warped because they’re using arrows so much.” [The Guardian→]( [Patient of Elon Musk’s Neuralink Shows Off New Life With Implant]( “I’ve glimpsed what the possibilities are, and now it’s hard to live any other way.” [The Wall Street Journal→]( [How Logic and Reasoning Can Fail as Scientific Tools]( In logic, reductio ad absurdum shows how flawed arguments fall apart. Our absurd universe, however, often defies our intuitive reasoning. [Big Think→]( WE ARE CURIOUS TO KNOW... What is your most memorable experience of defending yourself? 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 [“Sperm Whales Drop ‘Bubble of Poo’ Off Western Australia to Prevent Orca Attack in Rarely Recorded Encounter.”]() Top Answer to Our Previous Question (On the Three Tracks That Best Exemplify Your Overall Taste in Music) • “Cry to Me” by Solomon Burke. Emotionally-connected, sultry rhythm, and one of the richest voices of all time. “In a Sentimental Mood” by Duke Ellington & John Coltrane. Unparalleled tones create their own atmosphere; it is a sensual conversation between the music and the listener. “Prelude” by George Winston. Mindfully placed notes and an incredible sense of space—lots of breathing room. – Julie B. The Best Way to Watch the Solar Eclipse As a discerning Nautilus reader, you probably know not to look directly at the sun during a solar eclipse. The best way to experience the Great North American Solar Eclipse on April 8th is with [a pair of ISO-certified solar eclipse glasses](, courtesy of Warby Parker. Starting April 1, swing by any Warby Parker store to snag a free pair. Not near a store? No problem. Nautilus is giving away 10 gift sets of Warby Parker solar eclipse glasses (each gift set contains 4 pairs of eclipse glasses). Head over to [Instagram]( to enter to win so you (and three friends!) can experience this celestial spectacle. [ENTER HERE]( The latest from Nautilus [COMMUNICATION]( The End of Species Why it’s time for new ways of naming life. BY JASON ROBERTS When he can spare the time, Jan Mees is an exorcist of scientific ghosts. A marine biologist, Mees’s full-time job is directing the Flanders Marine Institute in Ostend, Belgium, but his side project is serving as co-leader of an international group of volunteer scientists. Together, they’re working to build a World Register of Marine Species, a comprehensive database vetting the accuracy of scientific names for aquatic life. It was a daunting task from the beginning, but Mees and his colleagues have been surprised by how much of their work involves not adding to the register but subtracting from it. [Keep on reading]( Your free story this Tuesday! [MATH]( [An “Infinitely Rich” Mathematician Turns 100]( Richard Guy achieved his status as a mathematical titan by working away as a self-described amateur, though he pushes the boundaries of that definition. BY SIOBHAN ROBERTS At the Hotel Parco dei Principi in Rome, in September of 1973, the Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős approached his friend Richard Guy with a request. [Continue reading for free→]( The Rockstar and the Squid Coming from the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community in western Washington, musician Katherine “KP” Paul, of Black Belt Eagle Scout, has a deep personal connection to the ocean. That’s why she was the perfect choice [to read]( Alex Riley’s special story about the search for a giant, mysterious, luminous squid—Taningia danae. We love this story because it shows how little we know about our deep oceans, and how even an animal sporting giant, flashing lights, can remain virtually unknown…until now. For the first time, you can listen to a Nautilus story on [YouTube]( or [Spotify](. Check it out and let us know what you think. [WATCH]( [LISTEN]( P.S. The Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős, one of the most prolific producers of conjectures in the 20th century, was born on this day in 1913. “He sustained himself with espresso and other stimulants, [worked on math problems 19 hours a day](, and in his lifetime published in excess of 1,500 papers with more than 500 collaborators,” wrote Siobhan Roberts. “The itinerant Hungarian traveled from university to university, delivering some 40 talks a year, posing his problems, occasionally offering cash prizes for solutions, sometimes 25 dollars, other times thousands.” 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. Plus, if you find our content valuable, consider [becoming a member]( to support our work, and inspire a friend to sign up for [the Nautilus newsletter](. 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