Can Humans Survive Mass Extinction?

Threats that could wipe out the bulk of life on earth abound. Planetary catastrophe could come in the form of a killer asteroid impact, the eruption of massive supervolcanoes, a nearby gamma ray burst that sterilizes the earth, or by human-driven environmental collapse.Yet life will endure, says Annalee Newitz, and so will humanity. In her new book, Scatter, Adapt, and Remember: How Humans Will Survive a Mass Extinction , Newitz surveys billions of years of history and five previous mass extinctions to draw lessons about how catastrophe comes and how - and why - life abides. [More]