In this “fun”, festive episode of The Studies Show, Tom and Stuart discuss two ways—one man-made, one natural—that our species might be wiped off the planet.

The first is “mirror life”, a science-fiction-sounding threat that hardly anyone had heard of until last week, when a group of concerned scientists wrote an open letter arguing that this is a technology that should never be developed. The second is the eruption of a supervolcano, which has a scarily high likelihood of happening in the next century… and for which scientists say we’re “woefully underprepared”. Have a cheery Christmas!

Here’s your chance to do some clear, measurable good this Christmas. We’re pleased to say that we’re being sponsored by GiveWell, the non-profit organisation who use evidence to work out which charities are the most impactful and effective. The really good news is that they’ll match any donation up to $100 for first-time donors who tell them at the checkout that they heard about GiveWell on a podcast, and then choose THE STUDIES SHOW. Go to GiveWell.org and click “donate” to get started.

Show notes

* Mirror life:

* The 300-page full Stanford report

* Science perspective piece on the risks of mirror life

* Asimov Press explainer article

* Supervolcanoes:

* I HATE ICELAND!

* Nature piece from 2022 about our “woeful” level of preparation for a massive volcanic eruption

* 1816, the “year without a summer”

* Evidence against the idea that Mt. Tambora nearly drove humans to extinction

* 2024 paper that’s sceptical of global cooling beyond 1.5 degrees C

* 2023 paper with a much more pessimistic scenario

* Two useful discussions (first, second) of the effects of supervolcanoes on the Effective Altruism forum

* 2018 article on what interventions might prevent or mitigate supervolcanic eruptions

Credits

The Studies Show is produced by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada Productions.