Discarded; How Technofossils will be our Ultimate Future
Audience: Public Format: In Person
A free talk by authors Sarah Gabbott and Jan Zalasiewicz on their new book.
Thursday, 9 July 2026, 6pm to 7.30pm
A blizzard of new objects has suddenly appeared on Earth: plastic bottles, ballpoint pens, enlarged chicken bones, and teabags, to name but a few. They're produced for our comfort and pleasure, then quickly discarded. This treasure chest underpins our lives, but it is also giving way to a completely new style of fossilisation – technofossils. The book, Discarded, explores how these new fossils will transform as they are attacked by bacteria, baked by the Earth's inner heat, squashed by overlying rock, permeated by subterranean fluids, and crumpled by mountain-building movements — as well as what will be left of them and their impact on our current ecological systems.
Series: Exhibition series: 34: The critical raw materials shaping our future
Venue:
University Museum of Natural History
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University Museum of Natural History Parks Road Oxford Oxfordshire OX1 3PW United Kingdom
Department: Oxford University Museum of Natural History (Department)
Organiser: Communications Team