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. 

Did you enjoy the post?  Let us know!  Yours truly appreciates your attention.  The comments box is open.

Come back!  And stay tuned for more wonders.

Namaste,
 

Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio, PhD

Gilf Gaia Extraordinaire

Author of Gaia, Eros, and many other books about love
Professor of Humanities

University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez

   

Follow us in the social media

Poly Planet GAIA Blog: 
http://polyplanet.blogspot.com/ 

Website: www.serenagaia.com 

Be Appraised of Ecosex Community Project PostaHouse 
Become a Fan: www.facebook.com/GaiaBlessings 

Author's Page/Lists all books: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JS1VKA 

YouTube Uploaded Videos: http://www.youtube.com/SerenaAnderlini
 

Book a vacation at gateway to Gaia, Playa Azul:

Playa Azul, Western Puerto Rico
Book Online

Find an apartment to stay in Hormigueros

Read Victoria Alexander's article on Digital Journal

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

Dear Earthlings:

more snapshots this week.  What is science?  Who first talked about the "biosphere"?  Is music a form of knowledge too?  The big question come up when the topic is Lynn Margulis.  She was "fearless" her son Dorion Sagan says in Digital Journal.  That's how she invented a new episteme, a new interpretation of what life is, from cell to cosmos. 

 

Martin Brasier, of Oxford University, explains how specialization leads to mass extinctions in the history of life s evolution.  Oh my!  The we really need scholars whose horizon is the entire system.  Have you been wondering what science is?  Brasier explains, with a pinch of British humor: "A unique system for the measurement of doubt."  Just in case you'd confuse it with religion or other belief systems shamefaced enough to offer prepackaged "truths." 

Douglas Zook, of Boston University, compares Lynn Margulis to Alexander Humboldt, a 19th century American scientist, pioneer of ecology and biosphere.  Like Morgan, he was a defender and advocate of indigenous people who saw the need to merge disciplines to look at the cosmos as a whole. 

Flute music as audacious as Lynn, at the Ayurvedic lunch entertainment.  Because, yes, science is also music!

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. 

Did you enjoy the post?  Let us know!  Yours truly appreciates your attention.  The comments box is open.

Come back!  And stay tuned for more wonders.

Namaste,
 

Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio, PhD

Gilf Gaia Extraordinaire

Author of Gaia, Eros, and many other books about love
Professor of Humanities

University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez

   

Follow us in the social media

Poly Planet GAIA Blog: 
http://polyplanet.blogspot.com/ 

Website: www.serenagaia.com 

Be Appraised of Ecosex Community Project PostaHouse 
Become a Fan: www.facebook.com/GaiaBlessings 

Author's Page/Lists all books: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JS1VKA 

YouTube Uploaded Videos: http://www.youtube.com/SerenaAnderlini
 

Book a vacation at gateway to Gaia, Playa Azul:

Playa Azul, Western Puerto Rico
Book Online

Find an apartment to stay in Hormigueros

Read Victoria Alexander's article on Digital Journal: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/321533#ixzz1qfRQq68Y

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

Dear Earthlings:

two more snapshots this week.  Astrobiology: the science that studies the life of astral bodies.  Oh my!  These are big questions for yours truly.  I'm an earth sign and my imagination doesn't travel that far in space.  But yes, if Gaia, the third planet, has a "life," a "biography," so must other astral bodies too.  Lynn Margulis made contributions in this area too.  

Lynn Rothschild explains what Astrobiology asks: where do we come from? Where are we going? Are we alone? In a cosmic way. Rothschild was inspired by Lynn Margulis who understood how important astrobiology would be for the future.  Now we know that stars have planets too.  The search for "intelligent life" continues. 

Penelope Boston speaks of extant life, extinct life, and everything in between. Could extinct life, as in rocks, Mars, become extant again?   Is extinction an interlude, as in the tale of Rick Van Winkle?  Microbes exist in rocks and on Mars too!  Finally yours truly gets what astrobiology is.  It could be compared to the genre of science fiction if it were literature.  "Yes," says Penelope, "when I teach astrobiology I often ask students to read a science fiction novel and evaluate how plausible it is from a technical, scientific point of view."  Evolution only makes sense in the context of astrobiology, or is it vice versa?  And in any event, is it fair to define life as what feels like life if you are a human?  Again, you hit the big question when around Lynn Margulis.   

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. 

Did you enjoy the post?  Let us know!  Yours truly appreciates your attention.  The comments box is open.

Come back!  And stay tuned for more wonders.

Namaste,
 

Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio, PhD

Gilf Gaia Extraordinaire

Author of Gaia, Eros, and many other books about love
Professor of Humanities

University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez

   

Follow us in the social media

Poly Planet GAIA Blog: 
http://polyplanet.blogspot.com/ 

Website: www.serenagaia.com 

Be Appraised of Ecosex Community Project PostaHouse 
Become a Fan: www.facebook.com/GaiaBlessings 

Author's Page/Lists all books: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JS1VKA 

YouTube Uploaded Videos: http://www.youtube.com/SerenaAnderlini
 

Book a vacation at gateway to Gaia, Playa Azul:

Playa Azul, Western Puerto Rico
Book Online

Find an apartment to stay in Hormigueros

Read Victoria Alexander's article on Digital Journal: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/321533#ixzz1qfRQq68Y

8 of 8 - Snippetts of Eros - Disciples, Mentors, Lovers

Dear Earthlings:

The year of wonders is what 2012 is supposed to be.  Yours truly offers snippets of her favorite books.  All on yesterday's forbidden themes.  Let's see if their mysteries are revealed.

Eros is a story that staved the loneliness of her first years in the Caribbean, when she was missing her former Matrias,  California and Italy.  

What is mentoring?  Who are our mentors?  Who are our disciples?  Is this way of learning based on love?  That's one of the main themes.  Mentors and disciples have fallen in love with each other since time immemorial.  Yet the very question has become a taboo.  Why?  We love ourselves in another that comes to resemble us as a disciple whose knowledge we've mentored.  We protect that resemblance, we protect that love.  Isn't that a win-win?  A world where it is safe to learn is a world where it is safe for disciples and mentors to love. 

Here are yours truly's reflections back in 2007.  Eros: A Journey of Multiple Loves, has the full story. 

"And so when I arrived at the university I was looking for a mentor, an interlocutor who would also function as a portal to the worlds I did not know. . . . I found what I wanted even though I sometimes wished I had not because the challenge was often too strong.  Gnosis is a mode of knowledge based on love, and it sometimes demands unconditional love.  It is often practiced in response to the dysfunctional medicalization of love produced in mainstream psychotherapy discourse.  I received the knowledge I wanted and found the self-knowledge I was looking for, even as I learned to surrender to this practice in the process" (79).

The narrative continues as Gaia proceeds to become a mentor in her own turn.  Oh blessed be! 

Dear Earthlings:

Education is the heart of democracy.  And that includes education to love.  It comes in many forms.  Including learning about Eros and journeys of multiple loves.

Eros: A Journey of Multiple Loves was a Lambda Finalist in 2007.  It is now being considered for translation in to Spanish by a press in Madrid.  Access to this memoir would be a great gift to Spanish speakers across the globe.  If you agree, leave a comment and we will let the publisher know.  Gracias!  

Did you enjoy the post?  Let us know!  Yours truly appreciates your attention.  The comments box is open.

Come back!  And stay tuned for more wonders.

Namaste,
 

Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio, PhD

Gilf Gaia Extraordinaire

Author of Gaia, Eros, and many other books about love
Professor of Humanities

University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez

   

Follow us in the social media

Poly Planet GAIA Blog: 
http://polyplanet.blogspot.com/ 

Website: www.serenagaia.com 

Be Appraised of Ecosex Community Project PostaHouse 
Become a Fan: www.facebook.com/GaiaBlessings 

Author's Page/Lists all books: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JS1VKA 

YouTube Uploaded Videos: http://www.youtube.com/SerenaAnderlini