The mind-blowing circle of life, explained by a biologist | Sean B. Carroll

“While society's been humming along and enjoying all these advances in agriculture and medicine, in the last 50 or 60 years, ecologists have learned a lot about how nature works. I've codified these into a set of rules called the 'Serengeti Rules.'”

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In the last 60 years, ecologists have discovered that specific animals have an outsized impact on the health of their communities. The functioning of these ecosystems are sometimes entirely dependent upon certain individual species or small groups of species than others, says biologist Sean B. Carroll, who codified the laws of nature into a set of rules called The Serengeti Rules.

One of the chief points of The Serengeti rules is that some species are more integral in striking this balance than others. That's important knowledge because if we lose those species, those communities can collapse, and if those communities are compromised, reintroducing or boosting those lost species can have positive effects on the overall health of the ecosystem.

For example, the 70-year absence of wolves in Yellowstone was contributing to stunted trees. In the Pacific Northwest, trees along the river rely on nutrients from salmon carcasses to grow tall. Sean B. Carroll explains the hidden rules of interconnectivity, and why sometimes the smallest detail is fundamental to the functioning of our vast world.

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About Sean B. Carroll:

Sean B. Carroll is an award-winning scientist, author, educator, and film producer. He is Distinguished University Professor and the Andrew and Mary Balo and NIcholas and Susan Simon Chair of Biology at the University of Maryland, and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He was formerly Head of HHMI Tangled Bank Studios, and led the Department of Science Education from 2010-2023. He is also Professor Emeritus of Genetics and Molecular Biology at the University of Wisconsin.

An internationally-recognized evolutionary biologist, Carroll's laboratory research has centered on the genes that control animal body patterns and play major roles in the evolution of animal diversity. In recognition of his scientific contributions, Carroll has received the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Sciences, been elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, named a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and elected an Associate Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization.

His latest book is A Series of Fortunate Events.