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Gaia Hypothesis: A Love/Hate Relationship

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Gaia Hypothesis: A Love/Hate Relationship Gaia in Greek mythology is the personification of the Earth and the ancestral mother of all life however, in modern times the term symbolizes the name we commonly know as Mother Nature. The Gaia hypothesis was introduced by British scientist, James Lovelock and co-developed by microbiologist Lynn Margulis. They believed that all living organisms and their inorganic surroundings self-regulate in favour of life and has a sense of intelligence that enables it to survive. The scientific analysis of Gaia hypothesis observes the evolution of living organisms in comparison to the stability of the atmosphere, global temperatures, and much more. Initially, the hypothesis was not well received within the scientific community. …show more content…

He started to look at Earths history of how life had originated. It was already widely known that early Earth was almost void of all oxygen and that life at this time was dominated by anaerobes and chemotrophs. However, bacteria and photosynthetic algae eventually evolved removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and expelling small amount of oxygen. Over a long period of time this oxygen had accumulated creating an oxygenated atmosphere allowing life to flourish. From this Lovelock had a realization described in his novel "Healing Gaia".
"The Earth’s atmosphere was an extraordinary and unstable mixture of gases, yet I knew that it was constant in composition over quite long periods of time. Could it be that life on Earth not only made the atmosphere, but also regulated it - keeping it at a constant composition, and at a level favorable for organisms?" (1991)
The idea from here was named by novelist William Golding who at the time was a neighbour of Lovelocks. He was asked for advice on naming Lovelocks hypothesis where Golding had suggested Gaia, named after the Greek Goddess of the

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