Scientists Debate Gaia

Scientists Debate Gaia PDF Author: Stephen Henry Schneider
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262194983
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 412

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Book Description
Leading scientists bring the controversy over Gaia up to date by exploring a broad range of recent thinking on Gaia theory.

Scientists Debate Gaia

Scientists Debate Gaia PDF Author: Stephen Henry Schneider
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262194983
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 412

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Book Description
Leading scientists bring the controversy over Gaia up to date by exploring a broad range of recent thinking on Gaia theory.

Scientists on Gaia

Scientists on Gaia PDF Author: Stephen Henry Schneider
Publisher: Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262193108
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 433

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Book Description
Scientists on Gaia is a multidisciplinary exploration of the controversial Gaia hypothesis which was first phrased by James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis in the early 1970s. Forty-four contributions detail the philosophical, empirical, and theoretical foundations of Gaia, mechanisms through which planetwide homeostasis could occur, applicability of the hypothesis to planets other than Earth, possible destabilization by outside forces and public policy implications.

Gaia

Gaia PDF Author: J. E. Lovelock
Publisher: Oxford Paperbacks
ISBN: 0192862189
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 169

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Book Description
This classic work is reissued with a new preface by the author. Written for non-scientists the idea is put forward that life on Earth functions as a single organism.

On Gaia

On Gaia PDF Author: Toby Tyrrell
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400847915
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 325

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Book Description
A critical examination of James Lovelock's controversial Gaia hypothesis One of the enduring questions about our planet is how it has remained continuously habitable over vast stretches of geological time despite the fact that its atmosphere and climate are potentially unstable. James Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis posits that life itself has intervened in the regulation of the planetary environment in order to keep it stable and favorable for life. First proposed in the 1970s, Lovelock's hypothesis remains highly controversial and continues to provoke fierce debate. On Gaia undertakes the first in-depth investigation of the arguments put forward by Lovelock and others—and concludes that the evidence doesn't stack up in support of Gaia. Toby Tyrrell draws on the latest findings in fields as diverse as climate science, oceanography, atmospheric science, geology, ecology, and evolutionary biology. He takes readers to obscure corners of the natural world, from southern Africa where ancient rocks reveal that icebergs were once present near the equator, to mimics of cleaner fish on Indonesian reefs, to blind fish deep in Mexican caves. Tyrrell weaves these and many other intriguing observations into a comprehensive analysis of the major assertions and lines of argument underpinning Gaia, and finds that it is not a credible picture of how life and Earth interact. On Gaia reflects on the scientific evidence indicating that life and environment mutually affect each other, and proposes that feedbacks on Earth do not provide robust protection against the environment becoming uninhabitable—or against poor stewardship by us.

Gaia

Gaia PDF Author: James Lovelock
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198784880
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 169

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Book Description
Gaia, in which James Lovelock puts forward his inspirational and controversial idea that the Earth functions as a single organism, with life influencing planetary processes to form a self-regulating system aiding its own survival, is now a classic work that continues to provoke heated scientific debate.

The Gaia Hypothesis

The Gaia Hypothesis PDF Author: Michael Ruse
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022606039X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 267

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Book Description
“The book is full of empathetic, insightful, and often very funny portraits of Margulis, Lovelock, and a community of other figures associated with Gaia.” —Carla Nappi, New Books in Science, Technology, and Society In 1965 English scientist James Lovelock had a flash of insight: the Earth is not just teeming with life; the Earth, in some sense, is life. He mulled this revolutionary idea over for several years, first with his close friend the novelist William Golding, and then in an extensive collaboration with the American scientist Lynn Margulis. In the early 1970s, he finally went public with the Gaia hypothesis, the idea that everything happens for an end: the good of planet Earth. Lovelock and Margulis were scorned by professional scientists, but the general public enthusiastically embraced Lovelock and his hypothesis. In The Gaia Hypothesis, philosopher Michael Ruse, with his characteristic clarity and wit, uses Gaia and its history, its supporters and detractors, to illuminate the nature of science itself. Gaia emerged in the 1960s, a decade when authority was questioned and status and dignity stood for nothing, but its story is much older. Ruse traces Gaia’s connection to Plato and a long history of goal-directed and holistic—or organicist—thinking and explains why Lovelock and Margulis’s peers rejected it as pseudoscience. But Ruse also shows why the project was a success. He argues that Lovelock and Margulis should be commended for giving philosophy firm scientific basis and for provoking important scientific discussion about the world as a whole, its homeostasis or—in this age of global environmental uncertainty—its lack thereof. “[Ruse’s] treatment is thought-provoking and original, as you would expect from this perceptive, irrepressible philosopher of biology.” —New Scientist

Animate Earth

Animate Earth PDF Author: Stephan Harding
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 190744825X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 405

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Book Description
An exciting exploration into how Gaian science can help us to develop a sense of connectedness with the 'more-than-human' world. Written by ecologist Stephan Harding, Animate Earth argues that we need to establish the right relationship with the planet as a living entity in which we are indissolubly embedded - and to which we are all accountable. Now in its second edition, this fascinating book includes a new chapter on fungi, contemplative exercises and an update on the global climate situation. Stephan's work is based on careful integration of rational scientific analysis with our intuition, sensing and feeling - a vitally important task at this time of severe ecological and climate crisis. He replaces the cold, objectifying language of science with a way of speaking of our planet as a sentient, living being rather than as a dead, inert mechanism. Chemical reactions, for instance, are described using human metaphors, such as marriage, to bring personality back into the world of rocks, atmosphere, water and living things. In this sense, the book is a contemporary attempt to rediscover anima mundi (the soul of the world) through Gaian science, whilst assuming no prior knowledge of science. Discover what it means to live as harmoniously as possible within a sentient creature of planetary proportions with this inspiring read.

From Gaia to Selfish Genes

From Gaia to Selfish Genes PDF Author: Connie Barlow
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262521789
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
From Gaia to Selfish Genes is a different kind of anthology. Lively excerpts from the popular writings of leading theorists in the life sciences blend in a seamless presentation of the controversies and bold ideas driving contemporary biological research. Selections span scales from the biosphere to the cell and DNA, and disciplines from global ecology to behavior and genetics, and also reveals the links between biology and philosophy. They plunge the reader into debates about heredity and environment, competition and cooperation, randomness and determinism, and the meaning of individuality. From Gaia to Selfish Genes conveys the technical and conceptual roots of current scientific theories beginning with the planetary perspective of James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis and concluding with the reductionist views of Richard Dawkins and E. 0. Wilson. The contrasting worldviews, coupled with excerpts drawn from critics of each theory, encourage readers to examine their own presuppositions. In addition to the scientists' portrayal of the Gaia hypothesis, symbiosis in cell evolution, hierarchy theory, systems theory, game theory, sociobiology, and the selfish gene, the text is rich in autobiographical passages and biographies. By presenting the human side of research, From Gaia to Selfish Genes reveals the social context and interactions, the motivations and range of cognitive styles that comprise the scientific endeavor. Concluding essays written expressly for this book by Lynn Margulis, John Maynard Smith, W. Ford Doolittle, and others underscore the importance of such diversity. Connie Barlow is a science writer currently living in New York City. The scientists include: Robert Axelrod. Richard D. Alexander. Ludwig von Bertalanffy. Leo W. Buss. Francis Crick. Richard Dawkins. W. Ford Doolittle. Douglas Hofstadter. Julian Huxley. Leon J. Kamin. Philip Kitcher. Richard C. Lewontin. James Lovelock. Lynn Margulis. Ashley Montagu. Leslie Orgel. Steven Rose. Carmen Sapienza. John Maynard Smith. Lewis Thomas. Gerald Weinberg. E. 0. Wilson. Robert Wright. The science writers include: Lawrence Joseph. Arthur Koestler. Francesca Lyman. Jeanne McDermott. Richard Monastersky. Dorion Sagan.

Gaia Warriors

Gaia Warriors PDF Author: Nicola Davies
Publisher: Candlewick Press
ISBN: 0763648086
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
Examines the causes and effects of global warming and offers opinions from leading scientists about what can be done to help the Earth.

Homage to Gaia

Homage to Gaia PDF Author: James Lovelock
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780198604297
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 474

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Book Description
One of today's most influential environmentalists tells the fascinating storyof his life as a self-made inventor and scientist.