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

The five best places in London to have an epiphany
Margaret Thatcher statue rejected by public
Could red kites be London's next big nature success story?
Random Interview: Eileen Conn, co-ordinator of Peckham Vision
The best church names in London, and where they come from
Silencing the Brick Lane curry touts could be fatal for the city's self-esteem
Diary of the shy Londoner
Nice Interactive timeline lets you follow Londoners' historic fight against racism
Punk brewery just as sexist and homophobic as the industry they rail against
An interview with Desiree Akhavan