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Ancient Ice Biology reveals glaciers not as barren ice masses but as living archives teeming with microorganisms that have survived for millennia. The book centers on how these tiny life forms—bacteria, viruses, and fungi—offer clues about Earth's climatic past and life's adaptability. By studying ice cores, scientists have revived microbes frozen for 2,500 years, uncovering survival tricks like DNA repair in subzero conditions and dormancy strategies. These organisms also act as climate time capsules: shifts in their communities match historical warming events, linking biology directly to atmospheric changes. Yet, as glaciers melt, dormant pathogens and nutrients re-enter ecosystems, posing unanswered questions about risks and disruptions. Blending genomics, paleoclimatology, and ethics, the book progresses from explaining icy habitats to probing future implications. Chapters explore how cold-adapted enzymes could revolutionize biotechnology or how microbes from Antarctica inform the search for life on icy moons like Europa. Unlike purely technical texts, it weaves fieldwork stories—like drilling Tibetan ice cores—with accessible analogies, comparing glacial layers to “biological history books.” This interdisciplinary lens, paired with urgent discussions about preserving glaciers as scientific and ecological treasures, makes the book a standout. It bridges niche science and global relevance, appealing to both experts and curious readers eager to grasp climate change's hidden biological dimension.

A rich, captivating, and darkly humorous look into the evolution of apocalyptic thought, exploring how film and literature interact with developments in science, politics, and culture, and what factors drive our perennial obsession with the end of the world.As Dorian Lynskey writes, “People have been contemplating the end of the world for millennia.” In this immersive and compelling cultural history, Lynskey reveals how religious prophecies of the apocalypse were secularized in the early 19th century by Lord Byron and Mary Shelley in a time of dramatic social upheaval and temporary climate change, inciting a long tradition of visions of the end without gods.With a discerning eye and acerbic wit, Lynskey examines how various doomsday tropes and predictions in literature, art, music, and film have arisen from contemporary anxieties, whether they be comets, pandemics, world wars, the Cuban Missile Crisis, Y2K, or the climate emergency. Far from being grim, Lynskey guides readers through a rich array of fascinating stories and surprising facts, allowing us to keep company with celebrated works of art and the people who made them, from H.G. Wells, Jack London, W.B. Yeats and J.G. Ballard to The Twilight Zone, Dr. Strangelove, Mad Max and The Terminator.Prescient and original, Everything Must Go is a brilliant, sweeping work of history that provides many astute insights for our times and speaks to our urgent concerns for the future.