Earth, Life, and System
eBook - PDF

Earth, Life, and System

Evolution and Ecology on a Gaian Planet

  1. 368 pages
  2. English
  3. PDF
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

Earth, Life, and System

Evolution and Ecology on a Gaian Planet

About this book

Exploring the broad implications of evolutionary theorist Lynn Margulis's work, this collection brings together specialists across a range of disciplines, from paleontology, molecular biology, evolutionary theory, and geobiology to developmental systems theory, archaeology, history of science, cultural science studies, and literature and science. Addressing the multiple themes that animated Margulis's science, the essays within take up, variously, astrobiology and the origin of life, ecology and symbiosis from the microbial to the planetary scale, the coupled interactions of earthly environments and evolving life in Gaia theory and earth system science, and the connections of these newer scientific ideas to cultural and creative productions.Dorion Sagan acquaints the reader with salient issues in Lynn Margulis's scientific work, the controversies they raised, and the vocabulary necessary to follow the arguments. Sankar Chatterjee synthesizes several strands of current theory for the origin of life on earth. James Strick tells the intertwined origin stories of James Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis and Margulis's serial endosymbiosis theory. Jan Sapp explores the distinct phylogenetic visions of Margulis and Carl Woese. Susan Squier examines the epigenetics of embryologist and developmental biologist C. H. Waddington. Bruce Clarke studies the convergence of ecosystem ecology, systems theory, and science fiction between the 1960s and the 1980s. James Shapiro discusses the genome evolution that results not from random changes but rather from active cell processes. Susan Oyama shows how the concept of development balances an over-emphasis on genetic coding and other deterministic schemas. Christopher Witmore studies the ways in which a concentrated animal feeding operation, or CAFO, mixes up natural resources, animal lives, and human appetites. And Peter Westbroek brings the insights of earth system science toward a new worldview essential for a proper response to global change.

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Yes, you can access Earth, Life, and System by Bruce Clarke in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Biological Sciences & Ecology. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Contents
  3. List of Plates and Figures
  4. Acknowledgments
  5. Introduction: Earth, Life, and System
  6. 1. Life on a Margulisian Planet: A Son’s Philosophical Reflections
  7. 2. The RNA/Protein World and the Endoprebiotic Origin of Life
  8. 3. Exobiology at NASA: Incubator for the Gaia and Serial Endosymbiosis Theories
  9. 4. On Symbiosis, Microbes, Kingdoms, and Domains
  10. 5. The World Egg and the Ouroboros: Two Models for Theoretical Biology
  11. 6. The Planetary Imaginary: Gaian Ecologies from Dune to Neuromancer
  12. 7. Bringing Cell Action into Evolution
  13. 8. Sustainable Development: Living with Systems
  14. 9. Bovine Urbanism: The Ecological Corpulence of Bos urbanus
  15. 10. Symbiotism: Earth and the Greening of Civilization
  16. Notes
  17. References
  18. List of Contributors
  19. Index