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Library and Archives Canada  •  395 Wellington Street
1:00pm

Ends of the Earth

with Neil Shubin

Hosted by Trish Audette-Longo

Saturday
May , 2025
3
Ends of the Earth
Neil Shubin · Photo by Tangled Bank Studios

Urgent [and] prescient…The book captures Shubin’s reverence for both the beauty and the mysteries hidden in the cold, barren tundra.”

The New Yorker

We are thrilled to welcome Neil Shubin back to our stage. The bestselling author of Your Inner Fish takes readers on an epic adventure to the North and South Poles to reveal the secrets locked in the ice about life, the cosmos, and our planet’s future.

 

Ends of the Earth: Journeys to the Polar Regions in Search of Life, the Cosmos, and Our Future, blends travel writing, science, and history in a book brimming with surprising and wonderful discoveries. Shubin retraces his steps on a “dinosaur dance floor,” showing us where these beasts had populated the once tropical lands at the poles. He takes readers meteor hunting, as meteorites preserved in the ice can be older than our planet and can tell us about our galaxy’s formation. Readers also encounter insects and fish that develop their own anti-freeze, and aquatic life in ancient lakes hidden miles under the ice that haven’t seen the surface in centuries. It turns out that explorers and scientists have found these extreme environments as prime ground for making scientific breakthroughs across a vast range of knowledge.

 

In the end, what happens at the poles does not stay in the poles—the ends of the earth offer profound stories that will forever change our view of life and the entire planet.

 

Books are available from our friends at Perfect Books.

 

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