Imperial's online tree of life: a good resource for anyone into the imponderable immensity of existence

Mike Pollitt | Thursday 25 October, 2012 16:00

●

This video introduces this new website frome the biology bods of Imperial. It’s a clickable, zoomable, generally mess-aroundable tree of life.

When you start scrolling through the branches, zooming effortlessly through the vast generations of beings of the world, you feel a great sense of power. Your web browser has become a window looking out upon a vast panorama of life.

Then you realise that this sense of power is an illusion. In the context of this great tree, your life, and the life of your web browser, is of nothing. You are as lowly as a louse who’s just fallen out of a fuck off big oak tree. You are nothing.

So think on.

Filed in:

Snipe Highlights

Some popular articles from past years

Only 16 commuters touch in to Emirates Air Line, figures reveal
Margaret Thatcher statue rejected by public
Nice Interactive timeline lets you follow Londoners' historic fight against racism
The best church names in London, and where they come from
9 poems about London: one for each of your moods
Could red kites be London's next big nature success story?
The five spookiest abandoned London hospitals
Nice map of London's fruit trees shows you where to pick free food
Diary of the shy Londoner
Random Interview: Eileen Conn, co-ordinator of Peckham Vision