My Last Lecture, Arizona State University, April 2009.

1. john m. lynch
barrett, the honors college &
school of life sciences

13. Weather on
Sunday:
Hi: -24 °F
Lo: -36 °F
Ellesmere Island
75,767 square miles,
population 168

29. Mustelids

34. Putative Re-colonization Routes
RELIC

44. G. robusta
G. cypha

59. Two methods
of tree
formation (NJ &
LS), separate
NJ
analyses by
sex.
LS

60. ?

64. Wendell “Mink” Minckley (1935 – 2001)

73. Does the Earth go around the Sun, or does the Sun go around

the Earth?75%
How long does it take for the Earth to go around the Sun: one

day, one month, or one year?54%
Human beings, as we know them today, developed from earlier

species of animals. 53%
The earliest humans lived at the same time as the

dinosaurs.48%
The universe began with a huge explosion.33%


77. “In some remote corner of
the universe, poured out
and glittering in
innumerable solar
systems, there once was a
star on which clever
animals invented
knowledge. That was the
haughtiest and most
mendacious minute of
'world history’ - yet only a
minute. After nature had
drawn a few breaths the
star grew cold, and the
clever animals had to die.”

82. “Now, little ship, look out!
Beside you is the ocean: to
be sure it does not always
roar, and at times it lies
spread out like silk and
gold and reveries of
graciousness. But hours will
come when you will realize
that it is infinite and that
there is nothing more
awesome than infinity.”