42: The Answer to Almost Everything — Season 1, Episode 81: The Advent of Turbo-Evolution

Episode synopsis

The dominance of our species has consequences: we have created conditions that fuel rapid evolution. Global warming, climate change, hunting, habitat destruction, resource exploitation, and pollution are forcing nature to adapt to rapidly changing conditions. As a result, new variants emerge within populations or even entirely new species, adapting to new circumstances within a few generations. Can this rapid evolution help us find a solution to the loss of species?

About 42: The Answer to Almost Everything

What would we be without mucus? Can we live on water? How much does life weigh? Finding out the answers is the aim of ARTE's new science show. In a nod to Douglas Adams's "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", where the figure 42 is the ultimate answer to all questions, 42 tries to provide the answers.

More episodes from Season 1

• E1Can we dig our way through the Earth?
• E2Could We Live on the Moon?
• E3Should we use lotteries instead of elections?
• E4How Much Does Life Weigh?
• E5Will we move onto the water?
• E6Can Algorithms Make Us Healthy?
• E7What if there were no mucus?
• E8How do we solve the nuclear waste puzzle?
• E9What if Fear Didn't Exist?
• E10What if the ice disappeared?
• E11Do We All hear the Same Thing?
• E12Are we too pessimistic?