Earth, life, and system : evolution and ecology on a Gaian planet / edited by Bruce Clarke.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Clarke, Bruce, 1950- editor.

Series:

Meaning systems.

Meaning Systems Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Biodiversity.

Convergence (Biology).

Evolution (Biology)--Philosophy.

Evolution (Biology).

Gaia hypothesis.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (374 p.)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Fordham University Press, [2015]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

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.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

List of Plates and Figures

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Earth, Life, and System

1. Life on a Margulisian Planet: A Son’s Philosophical Reflections

2. The RNA/Protein World and the Endoprebiotic Origin of Life

3. Exobiology at NASA: Incubator for the Gaia and Serial Endosymbiosis Theories

4. On Symbiosis, Microbes, Kingdoms, and Domains

5. The World Egg and the Ouroboros: Two Models for Theoretical Biology

6. The Planetary Imaginary: Gaian Ecologies from Dune to Neuromancer

7. Bringing Cell Action into Evolution

8. Sustainable Development: Living with Systems

9. Bovine Urbanism: The Ecological Corpulence of Bos urbanus

10. Symbiotism: Earth and the Greening of Civilization

Notes

References

List of Contributors

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Jul 2020)

Description based on print version record.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9780823265282

0823265285

9780823265275

0823265277

OCLC:

915320729