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Yahoo
a day ago
- Science
- Yahoo
If people stopped having babies, how long would it be before humans were all gone?
Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you'd like an expert to answer, send it to CuriousKidsUS@ If people stopped having babies, how long would it be before humans were all gone? – Jeffrey Very few people live beyond a century. So, if no one had babies anymore, there would probably be no humans left on Earth within 100 years. But first, the population would shrink as older folks died and no one was being born. Even if all births were to suddenly cease, this decline would start slowly. Eventually there would not be enough young people coming of age to do essential work, causing societies throughout the world to quickly fall apart. Some of these breakdowns would be in humanity's ability to produce food, provide health care and do everything else we all rely on. Food would become scarce even though there would be fewer people to feed. As an anthropology professor who has spent his career studying human behavior, biology and cultures, I readily admit that this would not be a pretty picture. Eventually, civilization would crumble. It's likely that there would not be many people left within 70 or 80 years, rather than 100, due to shortages of food, clean water, prescription drugs and everything else that you can easily buy today and need to survive. To be sure, an abrupt halt in births is highly unlikely unless there's a global catastrophe. Here's one potential scenario, which writer Kurt Vonnegut explored in his novel 'Galapagos': A highly contagious disease could render all people of reproductive age infertile – meaning that no one would be capable of having babies anymore. Another possibility might be a nuclear war that no one survives – a topic that's been explored in many scary movies and books. A lot of these works are science fiction involving a lot of space travel. Others seek to predict a less fanciful Earth-bound future where people can no longer reproduce easily, causing collective despair and the loss of personal freedom for those who are capable of having babies. Two of my favorite books along these lines are 'The Handmaid's Tale,' by Canadian writer Margaret Atwood, and 'The Children of Men,' by British writer P.D. James. They are dystopian stories, meaning that they take place in an unpleasant future with a great deal of human suffering and disorder. And both have become the basis of television series and movies. In the 1960s and 1970s, many people also worried that there would be too many people on Earth, which would cause different kinds of catastrophes. Those scenarios also became the focus of dystopian books and movies. To be sure, the number of people in the world is still growing, even though the pace of that growth has slowed down. Experts who study population changes predict that the total will peak at 10 billion in the 2080s, up from 8 billion today and 4 billion in 1974. The U.S. population currently stands at 342 million. That's about 200 million more people than were here when I was born in the 1930s. This is a lot of people, but both worldwide and in the U.S. these numbers could gradually fall if more people die than are born. About 3.6 million babies were born in the U.S. in 2024, down from 4.1 million in 2004. Meanwhile, about 3.3 million people died in 2022, up from 2.4 million 20 years earlier. One thing that will be important as these patterns change is whether there's a manageable balance between young people and older people. That's because the young often are the engine of society. They tend to be the ones to implement new ideas and produce everything we use. Also, many older people need help from younger people with basic activities, like cooking and getting dressed. And a wide range of jobs are more appropriate for people under 65 rather than those who have reached the typical age for retirement. In many countries, women are having fewer children throughout their reproductive lives than used to be the case. That reduction is the most stark in several countries, including India and South Korea. The declines in birth rates occurring today are largely caused by people choosing not to have any children or as many as their parents did. That kind of population decline can be kept manageable through immigration from other countries, but cultural and political concerns often stop that from happening. At the same time, many men are becoming less able to father children due to fertility problems. If that situation gets much worse, it could contribute to a steep decline in population. Our species, Homo sapiens, has been around for at least 200,000 years. That's a long time, but like all animals on Earth we are at risk of becoming extinct. Consider what happened to the Neanderthals, a close relative of Homo sapiens. They first appeared at least 400,000 years ago. Our modern human ancestors overlapped for a while with the Neanderthals, who gradually declined to become extinct about 40,000 years ago. Some scientists have found evidence that modern humans were more successful at reproducing our numbers than the Neanderthal people. This occurred when Homo sapiens became more successful at providing food for their families and also having more babies than the Neanderthals. If humans were to go extinct, it could open up opportunities for other animals to flourish on Earth. On the other hand, it would be sad for humans to go away because we would lose all of the great achievements people have made, including in the arts and science. In my view, we need to take certain steps to ensure that we have a long future on our own planet. These include controlling climate change and avoiding wars. Also, we need to appreciate the fact that having a wide array of animals and plants makes the planet healthy for all creatures, including our own species. Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you'd like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to CuriousKidsUS@ Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live. And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you're wondering, too. We won't be able to answer every question, but we will do our best. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Michael A. Little, Binghamton University, State University of New York Read more: The problem with pronatalism: Pushing baby booms to boost economic growth amounts to a Ponzi scheme The dip in the US birthrate isn't a crisis, but the fall in immigration may be A country can never be too rich, too beautiful or too full of people Michael A. Little does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
San Francisco Chronicle
a day ago
- General
- San Francisco Chronicle
If people stopped having babies, how long would it be before humans were all gone?
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) If people stopped having babies, how long would it be before humans were all gone? – Jeffrey Very few people live beyond a century. So, if no one had babies anymore, there would probably be no humans left on Earth within 100 years. But first, the population would shrink as older folks died and no one was being born. Even if all births were to suddenly cease, this decline would start slowly. Eventually there would not be enough young people coming of age to do essential work, causing societies throughout the world to quickly fall apart. Some of these breakdowns would be in humanity's ability to produce food, provide health care and do everything else we all rely on. Food would become scarce even though there would be fewer people to feed. As an anthropology professor who has spent his career studying human behavior, biology and cultures, I readily admit that this would not be a pretty picture. Eventually, civilization would crumble. It's likely that there would not be many people left within 70 or 80 years, rather than 100, due to shortages of food, clean water, prescription drugs and everything else that you can easily buy today and need to survive. Sudden change could follow a catastrophe To be sure, an abrupt halt in births is highly unlikely unless there's a global catastrophe. Here's one potential scenario, which writer Kurt Vonnegut explored in his novel 'Galapagos ': A highly contagious disease could render all people of reproductive age infertile – meaning that no one would be capable of having babies anymore. Another possibility might be a nuclear war that no one survives – a topic that's been explored in many scary movies and books. A lot of these works are science fiction involving a lot of space travel. Others seek to predict a less fanciful Earth-bound future where people can no longer reproduce easily, causing collective despair and the loss of personal freedom for those who are capable of having babies. Two of my favorite books along these lines are ' The Handmaid's Tale,' by Canadian writer Margaret Atwood, and ' The Children of Men,' by British writer P.D. James. They are dystopian stories, meaning that they take place in an unpleasant future with a great deal of human suffering and disorder. And both have become the basis of television series and movies. In the 1960s and 1970s, many people also worried that there would be too many people on Earth, which would cause different kinds of catastrophes. Those scenarios also became the focus of dystopian books and movies. Heading toward 10 billion people To be sure, the number of people in the world is still growing, even though the pace of that growth has slowed down. Experts who study population changes predict that the total will peak at 10 billion in the 2080s, up from 8 billion today and 4 billion in 1974. The U.S. population currently stands at 342 million. That's about 200 million more people than were here when I was born in the 1930s. This is a lot of people, but both worldwide and in the U.S. these numbers could gradually fall if more people die than are born. About 3.6 million babies were born in the U.S. in 2024, down from 4.1 million in 2004. Meanwhile, about 3.3 million people died in 2022, up from 2.4 million 20 years earlier. One thing that will be important as these patterns change is whether there's a manageable balance between young people and older people. That's because the young often are the engine of society. They tend to be the ones to implement new ideas and produce everything we use. Also, many older people need help from younger people with basic activities, like cooking and getting dressed. And a wide range of jobs are more appropriate for people under 65 rather than those who have reached the typical age for retirement. Declining birth rates In many countries, women are having fewer children throughout their reproductive lives than used to be the case. That reduction is the most stark in several countries, including India and South Korea. The declines in birth rates occurring today are largely caused by people choosing not to have any children or as many as their parents did. That kind of population decline can be kept manageable through immigration from other countries, but cultural and political concerns often stop that from happening. At the same time, many men are becoming less able to father children due to fertility problems. If that situation gets much worse, it could contribute to a steep decline in population. Neanderthals went extinct Our species, Homo sapiens, has been around for at least 200,000 years. That's a long time, but like all animals on Earth we are at risk of becoming extinct. Consider what happened to the Neanderthals, a close relative of Homo sapiens. They first appeared at least 400,000 years ago. Our modern human ancestors overlapped for a while with the Neanderthals, who gradually declined to become extinct about 40,000 years ago. Some scientists have found evidence that modern humans were more successful at reproducing our numbers than the Neanderthal people. This occurred when Homo sapiens became more successful at providing food for their families and also having more babies than the Neanderthals. If humans were to go extinct, it could open up opportunities for other animals to flourish on Earth. On the other hand, it would be sad for humans to go away because we would lose all of the great achievements people have made, including in the arts and science. In my view, we need to take certain steps to ensure that we have a long future on our own planet. These include controlling climate change and avoiding wars. Also, we need to appreciate the fact that having a wide array of animals and plants makes the planet healthy for all creatures, including our own species. Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you'd like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to CuriousKidsUS@ Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live. And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you're wondering, too. We won't be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.
The Verge
01-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Verge
The Verge's 2025 Father's Day gift guide
Father's Day rules. It's a day to celebrate all that dads have contributed to the people, homes, and communities that they're a part of. Being a dad is a lot of work — something I can vouch for, being a relatively new one myself — so for Father's Day, why not give dear old dad a token of appreciation and love? Whether your dad prefers practical or clever gifts, we think you'll be pleased with the selection of picks below. As usual, we lean pretty heavily on tech, but there are several non-tech suggestions that most dads will be happy to receive, all of which come courtesy of the thoughtful staff here at The Verge. If a fast-charging portable battery or Sony's collapsible WH-1000XM6 headphones won't do the trick, perhaps Kurt Vonnegut's recently discovered two-player board game or a mountable Lego van Gogh replica will? Traveler's Notebook $45 For some people, note-taking is serious, serious business. That's why your dad's great ideas, errant thoughts, to-do lists, and appointments deserve a worthy notebook. Traveler's leather-bound travel journals are great for jotting down all of the above, especially since they come in a slew of sizes. $45 at Traveler's Company (various sizes) Indiana Jones and the Great Circle $69 Whether your dad is a fan of the Indiana Jones flicks or he digs MachineGames' excellent Wolfenstein titles, there's plenty to like in The Great Circle. The first-person exploration game lets you crack the whip, punch Nazis, and traverse the globe to retrieve precious relics. It's good fun. $69 at Amazon $69 at Walmart $70 at Best Buy Anker Laptop Power Bank $110$13519% off There are plenty of portable batteries out there, but few are as versatile and powerful as Anker's 25,000mAh Laptop Power Bank. The handy pack features two built-in, retractable USB-C cables — one of which serves as a lanyard — allowing you to quickly charge most devices on the go. $110 at Amazon $110 at Anker (with code WS7DV2LJAQAS) $120 at Newegg (with code CYGES2728) Backbone Pro $170 The best mobile controller is the Backbone Pro. It retains the same overall design and feel as the company's cheaper model, only with some comfort-boosting improvements. It also features a built-in battery and Bluetooth support, so your dad can use it for gaming on his TV, computer, VR headset, or handheld PC. $170 at Best Buy $170 at Backbone Ancel AD410 OBD2 Scanner Professional Diagnostic Scanner $40$5020% off The more ways you know how to diagnose a possible issue with your car, the less time you'll spend at the mechanic (sorry, mechanics). Ancel's diagnostic scanner plugs into the OBD2 port found in most US cars dating back to '96, letting you see exactly why certain lights on your dash keep popping up. $40 at Amazon (with Prime) $50 at Ancel Sony WH-1000XM6 $448$4500% off The latest iteration of Sony's best-in-class noise-canceling headphones has finally arrived. The newfangled XM6 make subtle improvements to every facet, from sound quality to comfort to ANC, while wisely bringing back the foldable design last seen on the last-gen XM4. $448 at Amazon $450 at Best Buy $450 at Sony Hoto SnapBloq System $216$30028% off Hoto's modus operandi is to make svelte, handsome tools, with the SnapBloq being its sleekest yet. Buying all three sets — which, as the name implies, snap together to form a block — nets you a precision screwdriver, drill pen, and rotary tool, all of which are rechargeable. Dad may already own enough tools, but we bet they don't look nearly as good as these do. $216 at Amazon $240 at Hoto Satechi Vegan-Leather Magnetic Wallet Stand $28$4030% off Satechi's MagSafe-ready wallet addresses two specific needs that may make it a must-have for some dads: it's crafted from vegan leather, and it doubles as a kickstand. That means the durable wallet provides a hands-free way to watch videos or hop on a call, whether you place it in portrait or landscape mode. $28 at Satechi $32 at Amazon $40 at Apple AirPods 4 $119$1298% off Most of Apple's high-end earbud tech can be found in the AirPods 4, which cost significantly less than the latest Pro model. They're relatively small, offer great sound, and even support USB-C charging, making them a great pick if you can do without active noise cancellation. $119 at Amazon $119 at Walmart $130 at Best Buy James $18$2836% off Percival Everett's first work of fiction earned him the Pulitzer this year — and it's no surprise. The bold 2024 tale serves as a reworking of Huck Finn as told by the enslaved man who travels with him down the Mississippi, and although it's dead serious at times due to the subject matter, it's also inventive, poetic, and surprisingly funny. $18 at Amazon $19 at Walmart $25 at Barnes & Noble Xiaomi Sound Pocket $27$3010% off Xiaomi doesn't have as much of a presence in the US as it does globally, but thankfully, the classy Sound Pocket is readily available. The compact Bluetooth speaker supports hands-free calling with its built-in microphone, and its IP67 rating means it can even handle some water — so long as you don't submerge it for too long. $27 at Amazon (with on-page coupon) $30 at Walmart (with on-page coupon) Kurt Vonnegut's GHQ $35 While writing Cat's Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut needed to pay the bills, so he tried his hand at making board games. His creation, a tactical war-themed tabletop game called GHQ (General Headquarters), never saw the light of day — that is, until recently. Needless to say, the two-player game is a great title for Vonnegut fans and scholars alike. $35 at Barnes & Noble $35 at Kurt Vonnegut's GHQ Museum and Library Garmin Forerunner 570 $550 The Forerunner 570 has no business looking as good as it does for a running watch. Garmin's new wearable features a bright OLED display, a slick translucent band, and several new features, including skin temperature sensors and a built-in speaker / mic. The only real question is what size to get for dear ol' dad: 42mm or 47mm? $550 at Amazon $550 at Best Buy $550 at Garmin Magic: The Gathering — Final Fantasy Bundle $70 Magic: The Gathering isn't as difficult to get into as you might think, and the Final Fantasy -themed expansion might be the perfect place to start. The upcoming collection has sent the internet into a proverbial spiral, with many products selling out as a result of a very dedicated fan base. Lucky for dad, the entry-level starter kit is still readily available. $70 at Amazon $70 at Walmart $70 at Best Buy Nitecore BB21 electric blower $65$707% off All of dad's precious tech is prone to dust and other debris, which can impact usability if left unchecked. Fortunately, with Nitecore's rechargeable air blower as a companion, he can easily rid his mechanical keyboards and other tough-to-reach crannies of unwanted grime, ensuring all of his gadgets are in tip-top shape. $65 at Amazon $65 at B&H Photo $70 at Nitecore Sable, Fable (vinyl) $31 Bon Iver's Justin Vernon has come a long way from the fabled Wisconsin cabin where he supposedly holed up to record his debut. Sable, Fable, his latest LP, is a welcome kaleidoscope of sounds and feelings, from familiar strummers and beat-heavy ballads to the kind of sultry, R&B-flecked tracks that would make Prince swoon. $31 at Amazon $31 at Target $35 at Urban Outfitters Telepathic Instruments Orchid $450 Telepathic Instruments' retrofuturist keyboard is a vibes machine, one designed for people who want to easily produce cool sounds. It only houses a few piano keys, but it has dedicated major, minor, and other inputs that let you get creative without necessarily having to know how to play. $450 at Telepathic Instruments Chef'n S'mores Roaster $50$7432% off You can effortlessly replicate the magic of making s'mores while camping with Chef'n's small, safe machine. The contained flame on the tidy indoor / outdoor roaster is built to toast marshmallows, while its ceramic dome can melt chocolate onto graham crackers. All you'll need to supply is a fuel can, plus all the s'mores ingredients you can muster. $50 at Amazon $50 at Crate & Barrel $74 at Chef'n Panasonic 4K Blu-ray player (DP-UB420-K) $245$2502% off Like all of us, your dad deserves to watch movies at the best possible resolution, which is where a 4K Blu-ray player comes in. Panasonic makes some of the best models you can buy, and when paired with the right TV, 4K Blu-rays look and sound better than even the most high-res streaming apps. Plus, it's still fun to collect discs. $245 at Amazon $250 at Best Buy $250 at Crutchfield Panasonic Precision Beard & Hair Trimmer $125 If your dad's shaving gadget repertoire is outdated, try treating him to a fantastic — and customizable — beard trimmer. Panasonic's washable, wide-tipped model comes with 19 adjustable settings and can cut hair, too, just in case dad wants to keep a short 'do or touch up his sideburns. $125 at Amazon $125 at Panasonic Ontel Battery Daddy storage system $15$2025% off Most modern gadgets are rechargeable via USB-C, but many households still rely on traditional batteries for all sorts of things. Your dad is sure to be impressed with your moxie when you gift him this deluxe battery organizer, which has dedicated compartments for coin cell batteries, large D-cell batteries, and all of the smaller sizes in between. $15 at The Home Depot $20 at Amazon $20 at Ace Hardware Baseus Free2Pull Retractable USB-C Cable 100W $10$2255% off Most people don't want to wrangle cables… and who can blame them? Not us, which is why several folks at The Verge own Baseus' handy, retractable USB-C option. The Free2Pull comes in two sizes, each of which conveniently pulls the excess cable into a small puck that's far tidier and easier to manage than a loose cord. $10 at Amazon $13 at Best Buy $15 at Baseus Lego Vincent van Gogh Sunflowers $200 Most Lego creations occupy some desk or table space, which can be annoying if you're trying to tidy up. However, every item from Lego's Vincent van Gogh collection, which consists of several brick-ified paintings from the artist's late-1800s heyday, can be assembled and then mounted to your wall. $200 at Amazon $200 at Best Buy $200 at Lego Theragun Mini (third-gen) $220 A massage gun is a gift that keeps on giving. When muscles and tendons are tight or sore, the Theragun Mini serves as a quick and easy remedy, allowing dad to get on with his day with less discomfort. The third-gen model is just a little smaller, making what was already an ultra-portable device even more compact. $220 at Amazon $220 at Best Buy $220 at Theragun Birdfy Feeder 1 $120$22045% off Looking at birds is cool, and we're all better off spending more time doing it. And while birdwatching typically requires patience and a decent pair of binoculars, you could summon birds with Birdfy's entry-level smart feeder, which features a 1080p camera and an app that lets you view birds up close as they munch on seeds. Time Timer MOD (Home Edition) $20$2520% off A basic timer may seem like a thoughtless gift, but there are many tasks we procrastinate on every day that could be more easily managed if we dedicated a little bit of time to them. A visual Pomodoro timer, such as the colorful MOD (Home Edition), is key to helping break tasks into manageable chunks or take them on all at once. $20 at Amazon $20 at Walmart $25 at Time Timer Nintendo Switch 2 $449 The Switch 2 could make for a stellar gift for any dad — that is, if you can manage to preorder one ahead of the console's arrival on June 5th. Nintendo's latest hybrid console packs a larger 7.9-inch 1080p display, magnetic Joy-Con controllers, and a host of other minor but welcome improvements that build upon what was already a winning formula. $449 at Walmart $450 at Best Buy $450 at GameStop
The Hindu
24-05-2025
- General
- The Hindu
Carry on, it says cheerfully, all the while preparing to die
The semicolon is dying; sadly, there are no signs of grief anywhere. Perhaps because nobody really knows what to do with the punctuation mark that is a full stop on top and a comma below. It is neither; it is both. A grammarian's Schrodinger's cat, existing in two states at once. Yet, I love that 'handy little fellow' as Abraham Lincoln called the semicolon; and this, despite all the terrible jokes it inspires. Who wants a semicolonoscopy? Kurt Vonnegut dismissed the semicolon as a 'transvestite hermaphrodite representing absolutely nothing.' If someone tells Trump that, he will probably sign an Executive order banning the semicolon from his kingdom. It was born in 1494, in the work of Italian scholar and printer Aldus Pius Manutius (who also introduced italics). It's use rose by 388% between 1800 and 2006, before falling by 45% over the next 11 years. In 2017 it began a gradual recovery, with a 27% rise by 2022. How do I know all this? Well, researchers with lots of time on their hands sat and counted everything; after they read this, they might adjust that figure (as an aside, I had a friend in college who wrote: He pissed into the ocean once/And spent the rest of his life/ Measuring the consequent rise in sea level). There is something very Indian about the semicolon. It is hierarchical, yet democratic. It allows coexistence without integration. It lets ideas stand on their own while admitting they are part of a larger family. If the full stop is the head of the family and the comma the chatty aunt, the semicolon is the thoughtful cousin who studied abroad and returned with strange views about socialism and avocados. In the age of emojis and messages that ignore words altogether (IMO u r OK), the semicolon is an endangered species. Its subtlety is lost on an audience that prefers the emoji shrug to the shrug implied in the space between two independent clauses. It is a mark that says, 'Carry on.' Not with the brash certainty of a comma, but with the tentative optimism of a writer who believes that meaning lies in the pauses between thoughts. It separates clauses that could be full sentences but choose not to be. The counter to Vonnegut was spelt out by Hilary Mantel, who has a character say in a novel: I wonder why I ever bothered with sex; there's nothing in this breathing world so gratifying as an artfully placed semicolon. There will come a day when the semicolon disappears from our keyboards; the Jane Austens, Virginia Woolfs, Charles Dickenses, Mark Twains, all committed users of that punctuation mark will have semicolons removed from their works. Those who think in black or white will have no room for the grey of the semicolon, the punctuation for the undecided. Writing like the one you've just read, full of semicolons, will then be kept under a glass case in a maximum security museum like the 15th century art that it is.
The Guardian
18-05-2025
- General
- The Guardian
Marked decline in semicolons in English books, study suggests
'Do not use semicolons,' wrote Kurt Vonnegut, who averaged fewer than 30 a novel (about one every 10 pages). 'All they do is show you've been to college.' A study suggests UK authors are taking Vonnegut's advice to heart; the semicolon seems to be in terminal decline, with its usage in English books plummeting by almost half in two decades – from one appearing in every 205 words in 2000 to one use in every 390 words today. Further research by Lisa McLendon, author of The Perfect English Grammar Workbook, found 67% of British students never or rarely use the semicolon. Just 11% of respondents described themselves as frequent users. Linguistic experts at the language learning software Babbel, which commissioned the original research, were so struck by their findings that they asked McLendon to give the 500,000-strong London Student Network a 10-question multiple-choice quiz on the semicolon. She found more than half of respondents did not know or understand how to use it. As defined by the Oxford Dictionary of English, the semicolon is 'a punctuation mark indicating a pause, typically between two main clauses, that is more pronounced than that indicated by a comma'. It is commonly used to link together two independent but related clauses, and is particularly useful for juxtaposition or replacing confusing extra commas in lists where commas already exist – or where a comma would create a splice. It first appeared in the work of Italian scholar and printer Aldus Pius Manutius the Elder in 1494 but, despite its longevity, has long been marmite grammar. Lynne Truss, author of Eats, Shoots & Leaves, has castigated it as 'dangerously habit-forming'. She added: 'Many writers hooked on semicolons become an embarrassment to their families and friends.' Truss is not alone in her antipathy: Goosebumps, RL Stine's classic horror series for children, has one semicolon for every 200,000 words. Cormac McCarthy used 42 semicolons in his first book, The Orchard Keeper – but then just one across his next nine novels. EL James was criticised for repeatedly using commas inaccurately instead of semicolons in her Fifty Shades trilogy. But the form of punctuation also has its staunch supporters: along with Charles Dickens, Mark Twain and Jane Austen, Abraham Lincoln stood strong on the issue. 'I have a great respect for the semicolon; it's a very useful little chap,' he said. Virginia Woolf relied heavily on the semicolon in her novel-length meditation on time, Mrs Dalloway; the book includes more than 1,000 to echo its hero's flow of conscious thought. Nor could Salman Rushdie, John Updike and Donna Tartt have reached the literary heights that they have achieved without the help of an average of 300 semicolons for 100,000 words each. But to paraphrase the semicolon-supporting Twain, reports of 'useful little chap's' death might have been greatly exaggerated: Google Books Ngram Viewer, which includes novels, nonfiction, and even scientific literature, shows that semicolon use in English rose by 388% between 1800 and 2006, before falling by 45% over the next 11 years. In 2017, however, it started a gradual recovery, with a 27% rise by 2022. Perhaps, therefore, it will not be Vonnegart who wins out in the battle of the semicolon, but the rash, witty, louche Camille Desmoulins, as recreated by Hilary Mantel. In her novel A Place Of Greater Safety, Mantel imagined the politician, writer and best-known journalist of the French revolution having no doubts about it at all: 'I wonder why I ever bothered with sex,' she quotes him as saying. 'There's nothing in this breathing world so gratifying as an artfully placed semicolon.''
