Remembering Jane Goodall
a life of impact
Jane Goodall, who died earlier this month, was an internationally recognised primatologist, scientist, activist and conservationist.
From childhood dream to African fieldwork
She was not a scientist by training, but she already as a child she was fascinated by Africa. Her mother encouraged her to believe that she could do anything she wanted to if she tried hard enough. As soon as she had saved enough money, she travelled to Africa where she became secretary to the paleoanthropologist Dr Louis Leakey in Nairobi, Kenya. Leakey sent her to study chimpanzees in what is now Tanzania’s Gombe National Park.
Redefining how science viewed animals
Goodall’s approach combined empathy with rigorous fieldwork. Her observations revealed that chimpanzees were not just instinctive beings; they were also societies of individuals. They formed complex social groups: affectionate, ambitious, grieving, even warlike. They made and used tools - once thought the exclusive preserve of humans – and they ate meat.
Leakey announced that her findings required humanity either to “redefine man, redefine tool, or accept chimpanzees as human”.
He helped her to get on a PhD programme at Cambridge University despite having never completed a bachelor’s degree. She earned a doctorate in ethology in 1965. Professors told her she was “doing it all wrong,” but time supported the validity her insights.
From science to Advocacy
When she attended a primatology conference in Chicago in 1986, Goodall was confronted with the scale of deforestation across Africa, the decimation of chimpanzee populations, and the cruelty of laboratory experiments. She said, “I went to the conference as a scientist, and I left as an activist.”
She founded the Jane Goodall Institute to protect primates with the help of local people and their communities. In 1991 she gathered group Tanzanian students together and founded Roots & Shoots. Today it has over 150,000 groups in more than 100 countries. Roots and Shoots develops practical projects for people, animals and the environment. “Empathy and objectivity can coexist,” she insisted. “People will not rally to protect what they don’t know. That’s why it’s crucial to engage children with nature as early as possible.”
“What I want to be remembered for is starting Roots & Shoots and giving people hope, especially young people, and getting them involved in the natural world.”
Jane Goodall left a powerful message of hope
“She described humanity as standing at the mouth of a dark tunnel with a star shining at the end—hope. To reach it, she said, required collective effort. That conviction defined her legacy: a life that reminded the world that hope is not wishful thinking but a discipline, and that every individual makes a difference.” Mongabay
She talked about the importance of hope because she believed that it gives people the energy to go on, to live with purpose. She reminded us that every person matters, every person makes a difference. It is a joy to be reminded of this.
Please look at her final interview which was published posthumously. She said:
“I want to make sure that you all understand that each and every one of you has a role to play,” she says. “You may not know it, you may not find it, but your life matters, and you are here for a reason.
And I just hope that reason will become apparent as you live through your life. I want you to know that, whether or not you find that role that you’re supposed to play, your life does matter, and that every single day you live, you make a difference in the world. And you get to choose the difference that you make…”
I am thankful that Jane Goodall had a life of such positive impact. She truly made a difference.
And some good news
Today just one note, from The Optimist Daily, of an exciting development in energy storage.
We all know that solar and wind energy generation faces a common challenge – intermittency. When the sun doesn’t shine or the wind doesn’t blow, no energy is generated.
The Finnish company Polar Night Energy has a solution for that: a new type of battery made from sand. Pornainen, in southern Finland, is now home to the world’s largest sand battery: a 13-metre high, 15-metre wide storage system that can store 100 MWh of heat. Engineers and co-founders Markku Ylönen and Tommi Eronen developed the idea in 2018. They discovered that sand could provide the perfect candidate for a battery as it is affordable, abundant and surprisingly effective at storing heat.
The tower is filled with low-grade sand and heated using excess wind or solar electricity to generate heat to charge the sand to 500°C. When needed, the battery releases the hot air to warm the district heating system in Kankaanpää, Finland. Sand can store heat for days or even months at a time.
Markku explains:
“There’s really nothing fancy there. The complex part happens on the computer; we need to know how the heat moves inside the storage, so we know how much is available and at what rate we can discharge and charge.”
Construction sand is in high demand, which can harm lakes and rivers. Polar Night Energy a solution: Their batterycan use any sand-like material that meets thermodynamic standards which keeps costs low and sourcing sustainable.
In Pornainen, they used crushed soapstone, a by-product from the Finnish Fireplace company Tuliviki. It is not just reusing waste products, it’s practical too. Soapstone meets the density and heat tolerance needed to store thermal energy efficiently and it supports the circular economy.
References:
“Conservationist who spent decades studying wild chimps”, The Week, 11 October 2025.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/03/arts/television/jane-goodall-netflix-famous-last-words.html
