Scientists Debate Gaia is a multidisciplinary reexamination of the Gaia hypothesis, which was introduced by James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis in the early 1970s. The Gaia hypothesis holds that Earth's physical and biological processes are linked to form a complex, self-regulating system and that life has affected this system over time. Until a few decades ago, most of the earth sciences viewed the planet through disciplinary lenses: biology, chemistry, geology, atmospheric and ocean studies. The Gaia hypothesis, on the other hand, takes a very broad interdisciplinary approach. Its most controversial aspect suggests that life actively participates in shaping the physical and chemical environment on which it depends in a way that optimizes the conditions for life. Despite initial dismissal of the Gaian approach as New Age philosophy, it has today been incorporated into mainstream interdisciplinary scientific theory, as seen in its strong influence on the field of Earth System Science. Scientists Debate Gaia provides a fascinating, multi-faceted examination of Gaia as science and addresses significant criticism of, and changes in, the hypothesis since its introduction.In the book, 53 contributors explore the scientific, philosophical, and theoretical foundations of Gaia. They address such topics as the compatibility of natural selection and Gaian processes, Gaia and the "thermodynamics of life," the role of computer models in Gaian science (from James Lovelock's famous but controversial "Daisyworld" to more sophisticated models that use the techniques of artificial life), pre-Socratic precedents for the idea of a "Living Earth," and the climate of the Amazon Basin as a Gaian system.

Scientists Debate Gaia: The Next Century

Business & Money

Dorion Sagan

Economics

Mit Pr

Science & Math

Biological Sciences

What Is Life?

An exploration of what it means to be alive--by a biologist and science writer--spans disciplines from astronomy to the history of science and encompasses germs and geometry as well as birds and bees. 15,000 first printing. Newbridge, Natural Science, Library of Science, Astronomy, &amp; Reader's Subscription.

What is life?

Lynn Margulis

Simon&Schuster

"Microcosmos is nothing less than the saga of the life of the planet. Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan have put it all together, literally, in this extraordinary book, which is unlike any treatment of evolution for a general readership that I have encountered before. A fascinating account that we humans should be studying now for clues to our own survival."—From the Foreword by Dr. Lewis Thomas Microcosmos brings together the remarkable discoveries of microbiology in the later decades of the 20th century and the pioneering research of Dr. Margulis to create a vivid new picture of the world that is crucial to our understanding of the future of the planet. Addressed to general readers, the book provides a beautifully written view of evolution as a process based on interdependency and their interconnectedness of all life on the planet.

Microcosmos: Four Billion Years of Microbial Evolution

Margulis, Lynn

University of California Press

Eldredge, Niles

A look at the sexual impulse that is at the root of our very biological existence includes scientific discussions on the origins of gender, sexual strategies of life forms from mitochondria to humans, and the language of sexuality. 15,000 first printing.

What Is Sex

El código del envejecimiento

Paidos

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Books by Dorion Sagan