WHO ARE THE 1 PERCENTERS? IN THIS CASE, HOMO SAPIENS

Q. Looking at the really big picture, we are all part of the lucky 1 percent on Earth. How so?

A. We are the 1 percent of species not yet extinct, answers Gemma Tarlach in Discover magazine. “For the last 3.5 billion or so years, about 99 percent of the estimated 4 billion species that ever evolved are no longer around.” Based on data from fossil records, researchers have identified five mass extinctions, defined as the loss of at least 75 percent of species during each event. Multiple calamities, including ocean acidification and spikes in land temperatures, might be involved. However, the actual catalysts are sometimes unclear, though one usual suspect is large-scale volcanic activity spread across an entire region.

In fact, volcanic activity in Siberia was likely the catalyst for the third and mightiest of mass extinctions about 250 million years ago, when about 96 percent of species died off. Yet, despite all the destruction, adds Tarlach, one upside is that ecological hierarchies are toppled and “in that vacuum, surviving species often thrive, exploding in diversity and territory.” For instance, the fifth extinction some 65.5 million years ago saw the demise of the dinosaurs, opening newly vacated ecological niches to quickly adaptive mammals.

Now, most scientists believe we are in the midst of a “sixth extinction” brought on by human activity. As famed paleontologist Richard Leakey observed over 20 years ago, “Homo sapiens might not only be the agent of the sixth extinction but also risk being one of its victims.”

Q. What’s in a name, you ask? Something you might not expect, the researchers say. What might that be?

A. Respect. When they looked at about 4,500 online reviews by college students rating their professors in five disciplines at 17 universities, they uncovered some gender disparity, reports Science magazine. The students were “56 percent more likely to refer to male professors than female professors by their last name alone, and that form of address may confer greater respect.” Computer science showed the greatest difference, with male professors being referred to only by surnames 48 percent of the time, compared with 18 percent for female professors (“Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences”).

In related studies, Cornell University’s Stav Atir and Melissa Ferguson found that men garnered more surname-only recognition in other contexts, such as talk-show pundits discussing politicians. It appears that people regard scientists mentioned by last name alone as more famous and eminent than those mentioned by full name. As the authors conclude, “women may be short-changed on professional benefits such as research funding based on nothing more than how people utter their names.”