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    The weird story of a rodent utopia that predicted doom for humanity

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    In June 1972, the Royal Society of Medication in London hosted a symposium referred to as “Man in His Place”. It featured an eclectic group of audio system, together with Jacob Bronowski, whose acclaimed 13-part BBC tv collection, The Ascent of Man, would air the next yr. However the first particular person to take the rostrum was John Bumpass Calhoun from the US Nationwide Institute of Psychological Well being exterior Washington DC.

    Even viewers members accustomed to Calhoun’s work had no thought what was in retailer for them, and the title of his discuss – “Death squared: The explosive growth and demise of a mouse population” – didn’t give a lot away. “I shall largely speak of mice,” he started, “but my thoughts are on man, on healing, on life and its evolution.” He then went on to explain a long-term experiment he was working on inhabitants dynamics involving mice residing in a “Utopian environment” that he dubbed Universe 25. Though his examine topics have been rodents, Calhoun believed his metropolises had implications for people: this was a cautionary story of the chaos and social collapse in retailer for humanity in an overpopulated world.

    An ecologist-turned-psychologist-turned-futurist, Calhoun grew to become a science rock star within the Nineteen Seventies. His message struck a chord at a time when the human inhabitants was increasing quickly and overcrowding was a sizzling political concern. As curiosity grew in his analysis, Calhoun was courted by the good and the great, from politicians and concrete planners to jail reformists and writers. He even had an viewers with the pope. Unusual as it could appear, his rodent cities…

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