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Thursday, May 10, 2012

5 of 7 - A Life of Science: Lynn Margulis Opens the Gaian Era

Dear Earthlings:

how difficult it is for a genius to be appreciated in her homeland. Often what we do reverberates far away and then comes back to us as the appreciation our neighbors would never give. This also happened to Lynn Margulis.

She interpreted the nucleated cell as a major leap in evolution, one that happens by collaboration. Her taxonomy of species reflects this. Many thought she was just disobedient. After all why make a new taxonomy when one already exists? Science is just habit, run-of-the-mill stuff, no?

She also looked up scientists from the Soviet Union who had great ideas without the means to prove them. She translated them and designed experiments to test these ideas. Many thought she did not give proper credit and was not original. After all, what comes from the Soviet Union is always suspicious, right? Science is just an American way to reinvent the wheel, no?

Antonio Lazcano, from the Universidad Autonoma de Mexico, explains this, including how unfair it is to make these insinuations against Lynn Margulis. How this parochial blindness only succeeds in keeping people in the United States ignorant about the value of her contributions.

Antonio Lazcano: Lynn's taxonomy of species reflected her complex view of life and the biosphere.

Antonio Lazcano: Lynn made her predecessors known, proved their hypotheses by tests, and had their papers translated into English. Many of them were evolution scientists from Russia who emphasized symbiosis over selection collaboration over competition, which had been Darwin's main point.

Dear Earthlings:

Education is the heart of democracy. And that includes education to love. It comes in many forms. Including learning about Lynn Margulis, the role of collaboration in evolution, and Gaia theory.

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Come back! And stay tuned for more wonders.

Namaste,