This animation shows the growth of London’s population (ρ, 1000 people per square kilometre), its vascular system (railway), the daily heartbeat (passenger flows), and skin temperature (the urban heat island effect, °C). Such space-time dynamics display striking similarities with the invasive behaviour of biological organisms, thus raising fundamental questions on the long-term relation between humans and the Earth system.

Video content: 00:08 Growth | 00:46 Heartbeat | 01:14 Branching | 01:46 Skin temperature