Gaia hypothesis

Can a planet be alive? Lynn Margulis, a giant of late 20th-century biology, who had an incandescent intellect that veered toward the unorthodox, thought so. She and chemist James Lovelock together theorized that life must be a planet-altering phenomenon and the distinction between the “living” and “nonliving” parts of Earth is not as clear-cut as […]

The Gaia hypothesis implies that once alien life takes hold, it will flourish.

Revisiting James Lovelock’s theory as it approaches 50.