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Žukauskaitė Audronė - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Gajos teorija: tarp autopoezės ir simpoezės
'Vilnius University Press', 2020Co-Authors: Žukauskaitė AudronėAbstract:The article discusses the development of the Gaia Hypothesis as it was defined by James Lovelock in the 1970s and later elaborated in his collaboration with biologist Lynn Margulis. Margulis’s research in symbiogenesis and her interest in Maturana and Varela’s theory of autopoiesis helped to reshape the Gaia theory from a first-order systems theory to second-order systems theory. In contrast to the first-order systems theory, which is concerned with the processes of homeostasis, second-order systems incorporate emergence, complexity and contingency. In this respect Latour’s and Stengers’s takes on Gaia, even defining it as an “outlaw” or an anti-system, can be interpreted as specific kind of systems thinking. The article also discusses Haraway’s interpretation of Gaia in terms of sympoiesis and argues that it presents a major reconceptualization of systems theory
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Gajos teorija: tarp autopoezės ir simpoezės
'Vilnius University Press', 2020Co-Authors: Žukauskaitė AudronėAbstract:The article discusses the development of the Gaia Hypothesis as it was defined by James Lovelock in the 1970s and later elaborated in his collaboration with biologist Lynn Margulis. Margulis’s research in symbiogenesis and her interest in Maturana and Varela’s theory of autopoiesis helped to reshape the Gaia theory from a first-order systems theory to second-order systems theory. In contrast to the first-order systems theory, which is concerned with the processes of homeostasis, second-order systems incorporate emergence, complexity and contingency. In this respect Latour’s and Stengers’s takes on Gaia, even defining it as an “outlaw” or an anti-system, can be interpreted as specific kind of systems thinking. The article also discusses Haraway’s interpretation of Gaia in terms of sympoiesis and argues that it presents a major reconceptualization of systems theory.Straipsnyje aptariama Gajos hipotezės raida, pradedant tuo, kaip Jamesas Lovelockas ją suformulavo 1970 metais, ir atskleidžiant, kaip vėliau ją modifikavo bendradarbiaudamas su biologe Lynn Margulis. Margulis simbiogenezės teorija bei iš Humberto Maturanos ir Francisco Varelos perimta autopoezės samprata padėjo performuluoti Gajos hipotezę iš pirmojo lygmens sistemų teorijos į antrojo lygmens sistemų teoriją. Priešingai nei pirmojo lygmens sistemų teorija, kuri remiasi homeostazės principu, antrojo lygmens sistemų teorija inkorporuoja netikėtai pasireiškiančius, sudėtingus ir atsitiktinius elementus. Šiuo požiūriu Bruno Latouro ir Isabelle Stengers pasiūlytos Gajos interpretacijos, net ir akcentuojančios „atskalūnišką“ ir antisisteminį Gajos pobūdį, vis dar gali būti aiškinamos kaip sistemų teorijos atmainos. Straipsnyje autopoezės teorija taip pat lyginama su Donnos Haraway pasiūlyta simpoezės samprata bei teigiama, kad būtent simpoezė leidžia naujai konceptualizuoti pačią sistemų teoriją
Dutreuil Sébastien - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Life on Earth is hard to spot
'SAGE Publications', 2020Co-Authors: Lenton Timothy, Dutreuil Sébastien, Latour BrunoAbstract:International audienceThe triumph of the Gaia Hypothesis was to spot the extraordinary influence of Life on the Earth. 'Life' is the clade including all extant living beings, as distinct from 'life' the class of properties common to all living beings. 'Gaia' is Life plus its effects on habitability. Life's influence on the Earth was hard to spot for several reasons: biologists missed it because they focused on life not Life; climatologists missed it because Life is hard to see in the Earth's energy balance; Earth system scientists opted instead for abiotic or human-centred approaches to the Earth system; Scientists in general were repelled by teleological arguments that Life acts to maintain habitable conditions. Instead, we reason from organisms' metabolisms outwards, showing how Life's coupling to its environment has led to profound effects on Earth's habitability. Recognising Life's impact on Earth and learning from it could be critical to understanding and successfully navigating the Anthropocene
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The emergence and evolution of Earth System Science
'Springer Science and Business Media LLC', 2020Co-Authors: Steffen Will, Dutreuil Sébastien, Richardson Katherine, Rockström Johan, Schellnhuber, Hans Joachim, Dube, Opha Pauline, Lenton Timothy, Lubchenco JaneAbstract:International audienceEarth System Science (ESS) is a rapidly emerging transdisciplinary endeavour aimed at understanding the structure and functioning of the Earth as a complex, adaptive system. Here, we discuss the emergence and evolution of ESS, outlining the importance of these developments in advancing our understanding of global change. Inspired by early work on biosphere–geosphere interactions and by novel perspectives such as the Gaia Hypothesis, ESS emerged in the 1980s following demands for a new ‘science of the Earth’. The International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme soon followed, leading to an unprecedented level of international commitment and disciplinary integration. ESS has produced new concepts and frameworks central to the global-change discourse, including the Anthropocene, tipping elements and planetary boundaries. Moving forward, the grand challenge for ESS is to achieve a deep integration of biophysical processes and human dynamics to build a truly unified understanding of the Earth System
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Les multiples facettes de l'entrepreneuriat scientifique de James Lovelock dans les années 1960-70 : développement d’instruments, consultance sur les pollutions et hypothèse Gaïa
'CAIRN', 2019Co-Authors: Briday Régis, Dutreuil SébastienAbstract:International audienceJames Lovelock (1919-…), a chemist famous for having elaborated the Gaia Hypothesis, portrays himself as an "independent scientist" settled in a remote lab-house in the English countryside. Against this narrative, the authors describe Lovelock's life in the 1960s and 1970s as that of a "scientific entrepreneur". After twenty years as an engineer in a civil biomedical laboratory, Lovelock resigned to set up on his own. His skills as an expert in chromatography and as an engineer gifted for inventing chemistry instruments were so renowned that he rapidly became a highly demanded consultant, working both for major chemical and petroleum industries and for prestigious public scientific institutions. Obvious synergies, but also tensions, appear between his activities as an expert on environmental issues, his consulting work for industries, and his theoretical work giving birth to a new conception of Earth and life. Lovelock must not only be eventually regarded as one of the fathers of Earth system science and as an important contributor to cultural mutations linked to the environment from the 1960s onwards, but also as an early embodiment of a scientific entrepreneur with a foot in the world of public environmental research and the other in the world of industry.Chimiste célèbre pour avoir élaboré l'hypothèse Gaïa, James Lovelock (1919-…) se présente comme un « scientifique indépendant » installé dans son laboratoire-maison, retiré dans la campagne anglaise. À rebours de ce récit, les auteurs décrivent son parcours dans les années 1960-70 comme celui d'un « scientifique entrepreneur ». Après vingt ans comme ingénieur-fonctionnaire dans le domaine biomédical, Lovelock délaisse cette position pour s'établir à son compte. Son expertise dans le domaine de la chromatographie et l'invention d'instruments font de lui un consultant courtisé, aussi bien par de grandes entreprises chimiques et pétrolières que par de prestigieuses institutions scientifiques publiques. De grandes synergies, mais aussi des tensions, s'opèrent entre ses activités d'expert sur des questions environnementales, de consultant pour des entreprises et de théoricien élaborant une nouvelle conception de la Terre et de la vie. Lovelock ne doit plus uniquement être regardé comme l'un des pères des sciences du système Terre et un acteur important des mutations culturelles autour de l'environnement depuis les années 1960, mais également comme une incarnation précoce de scientifique entrepreneur avec un pied dans la recherche publique sur l'environnement et l'autre dans la recherche industrielle
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: développement d'instruments, consultance sur les pollutions et hypothèse Gaïa
'CAIRN', 2019Co-Authors: Briday Régis, Dutreuil SébastienAbstract:International audienceJames Lovelock (1919-…), a chemist famous for having elaborated the Gaia Hypothesis, portrays himself as an "independent scientist" settled in a remote lab-house in the English countryside. Against this narrative, the authors describe Lovelock's life in the 1960s and 1970s as that of a "scientific entrepreneur". After twenty years as an engineer in a civil biomedical laboratory, Lovelock resigned to set up on his own. His skills as an expert in chromatography and as an engineer gifted for inventing chemistry instruments were so renowned that he rapidly became a highly demanded consultant, working both for major chemical and petroleum industries and for prestigious public scientific institutions. Obvious synergies, but also tensions, appear between his activities as an expert on environmental issues, his consulting work for industries, and his theoretical work giving birth to a new conception of Earth and life. Lovelock must not only be eventually regarded as one of the fathers of Earth system science and as an important contributor to cultural mutations linked to the environment from the 1960s onwards, but also as an early embodiment of a scientific entrepreneur with a foot in the world of public environmental research and the other in the world of industry.Chimiste célèbre pour avoir élaboré l'hypothèse Gaïa, James Lovelock (1919-…) se présente comme un « scientifique indépendant » installé dans son laboratoire-maison, retiré dans la campagne anglaise. À rebours de ce récit, les auteurs décrivent son parcours dans les années 1960-70 comme celui d'un « scientifique entrepreneur ». Après vingt ans comme ingénieur-fonctionnaire dans le domaine biomédical, Lovelock délaisse cette position pour s'établir à son compte. Son expertise dans le domaine de la chromatographie et l'invention d'instruments font de lui un consultant courtisé, aussi bien par de grandes entreprises chimiques et pétrolières que par de prestigieuses institutions scientifiques publiques. De grandes synergies, mais aussi des tensions, s'opèrent entre ses activités d'expert sur des questions environnementales, de consultant pour des entreprises et de théoricien élaborant une nouvelle conception de la Terre et de la vie. Lovelock ne doit plus uniquement être regardé comme l'un des pères des sciences du système Terre et un acteur important des mutations culturelles autour de l'environnement depuis les années 1960, mais également comme une incarnation précoce de scientifique entrepreneur avec un pied dans la recherche publique sur l'environnement et l'autre dans la recherche industrielle
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James Lovelock’s Gaia Hypothesis: "A New Look at Life on Earth" ... for the Life and the Earth sciences
HAL CCSD, 2018Co-Authors: Dutreuil SébastienAbstract:International audienceAfter a career as a chemist and engineer, James Lovelock proposed the Gaia Hypothesis in the 1970’s with Lynn Margulis, a biologist. The Hypothesis highlights the important influence that living beings have on their geological environment to speculate about the possibility of a regulation of the planetary environment. From the beginning Lovelock saw Gaia as a grand idea, challenging the way biology and geology should be carried out, and up to our very conception of nature. This chapter recalls the rich context in which the Hypothesis was elaborated in the 1960’s and 1970’s. It then traces Gaia’s contrasted reception. Wheras evolutionary biologists ridiculed it as a pseudo-metaphor comparing the Earth with an organism, Gais has generated new research programs in the Earth sciences and has been embraced by the environmental counterculture as a new conception of nature and of our relationships with the Earth
Takeshi Sugimoto - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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darwinian evolution does not rule out the Gaia Hypothesis
Journal of Theoretical Biology, 2002Co-Authors: Takeshi SugimotoAbstract:Abstract This study explores so-called Darwinian Daisyworlds mathematically rigorously in detail. The original Daisyworld was introduced by Watson & Lovelock (1983) to demonstrate how two species of daisies regulate the global temperature of their planet through competition among these species against the rising solar luminosity, i.e. the Gaia Hypothesis. Its variants are Darwinian Daisyworlds in which daisies can adapt themselves to the local temperature. Robertson & Robinson (1998) insist their Darwinian daisies lose the ability for temperature regulation on the basis of their spreadsheet simulations. Lenton & Lovelock (2000) point out that the constraints on adaptation recovers Darwinian daisies' ability of temperature regulation on the basis of their Euler-code simulations. The present study shows there exist the exact and closed-form solutions to these two Daisyworlds. The results contradict the former studies: Robertson and Robinson's daisies do regulate the global temperature even longer than non-adaptive daisies; Lenton and Lovelock's daisies are less adaptive than Robertson and Robinson's daisies because of the constraints on adaptation; the introduction of weak adaptability drives species into a dead end of evolution. Thus, the present results confirm that the Gaia Hypothesis and Darwinian evolution can coexist.
Katja Rothe - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Permaculture Design : On the Practice of Radical Imagination
Communication +1, 2014Co-Authors: Katja RotheAbstract:Permaculture design is a concept that aims at transforming not only agriculture, but also city planning, architecture, development, etc. In short it aims to change human habitats. It is part of a new ecological paradigm that is currently spreading in popularity from the urban gardening movement to various other alternative movements such as the slow movement, sustainable architecture, etc. Permaculture design defines itself as building on systems theory (as formulated in particular by Howard Thomas Odum and Christopher Alexander). However I would like to propose that the afterlife of systems theory as expressed in the concept of permaculture, first developed by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, should not only be sought in theoretical and analytical discourse. Instead we can understand permaculture as a form of figurative, ecological reasoning; a form of radical imagination drawn from the composite knowledge of a heterogeneous network of actors. Permaculture is thus neither a branch of environmental science nor an environmental political movement. Rather the philosophy of permaculture design questions the division between theory and practice or between rationality and sensibility. In permaculture design, these modes of knowledge are inextricably linked in explorations of patterns. In this article, I attempt to delineate the ways in which permaculture design is rooted in the practical knowledge of systems. I shall limit myself to exploratory drilling, as it were, in three aspects of permaculture design thought. First, I describe permaculture thought as a form of practical knowledge that generated through a kind of visual thinking in patterns. Second, I describe permaculture thought as a type of thinking in which radical imagination and speculation play an active role. Third, I present permaculture thought as systems theory thought. However it departs from the idea of control inherent to systems theory, drawing instead from the equally popular (and colorful) Gaia Hypothesis, which posits Earth as an intelligent, material assembly that modifies thought processes.
Tm Lenton - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Life on Earth is hard to spot
'SAGE Publications', 2020Co-Authors: Tm Lenton, Dutreuil S, Latour BAbstract:This is the final version. Available on open access from SAGE Publications via the DOI in this record. The triumph of the Gaia Hypothesis was to spot the extraordinary influence of Life on the Earth. ‘Life’ is the clade including all extant living beings, as distinct from ‘life’ the class of properties common to all living beings. ‘Gaia’ is Life plus its effects on habitability. Life’s influence on the Earth was hard to spot for several reasons: biologists missed it because they focused on life not Life; climatologists missed it because Life is hard to see in the Earth’s energy balance; Earth system scientists opted instead for abiotic or human-centred approaches to the Earth system; Scientists in general were repelled by teleological arguments that Life acts to maintain habitable conditions. Instead, we reason from organisms’ metabolisms outwards, showing how Life’s coupling to its environment has led to profound effects on Earth’s habitability. Recognising Life’s impact on Earth and learning from it could be critical to understanding and successfully navigating the Anthropocene.Zentrum fur Kunst und Medien, Karlsruh
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The emergence and evolution of Earth System Science
'Springer Science and Business Media LLC', 2020Co-Authors: Steffen W, Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Tm Lenton, Richardson K, Rockström J, Op Dube, Dutreuil S, Lubchenco JAbstract:This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Nature Research via the DOI in this recordEarth System Science (ESS) is a rapidly emerging transdisciplinary endeavour aimed at understanding the structure and functioning of the Earth as a complex, adaptive system. Here, we discuss the emergence and evolution of ESS, outlining the importance of these developments in advancing our understanding of global change. Inspired by early work on biosphere–geosphere interactions and by novel perspectives such as the Gaia Hypothesis, ESS emerged in the 1980s following demands for a new ‘science of the Earth’. The International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme soon followed, leading to an unprecedented level of international commitment and disciplinary integration. ESS has produced new concepts and frameworks central to the global-change discourse, including the Anthropocene, tipping elements and planetary boundaries. Moving forward, the grand challenge for ESS is to achieve a deep integration of biophysical processes and human dynamics to build a truly unified understanding of the Earth System
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Alternative mechanisms for Gaia
'Elsevier BV', 2020Co-Authors: Ae Nicholson, Dm Wilkinson, Williams Htp, Tm LentonAbstract:This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier via the DOI in this recordA long-standing objection to the Gaia Hypothesis has been a perceived lack of plausible mechanisms by which life on Earth could come to regulate its abiotic environment. A null Hypothesis is survival by pure chance, by which any appearance of regulation on Earth is illusory and the persistence of life simply reflects the weak anthropic principle - it must have occurred for intelligent observers to ask the question. Recent work has proposed that persistence alone increases the chance that a biosphere will acquire further persistence-enhancing properties. Here we use a simple quantitative model to show that such ‘selection by survival alone’ can indeed increase the probability that a biosphere will persist in the future, relative to a baseline of pure chance. Adding environmental feedback to this model shows either an increased or decreased survival probability depending on the initial conditions. Feedback can hinder early life becoming established if initial conditions are poor, but feedback can also prevent systems from diverging too far from optimum environmental conditions and thus increase survival rates. The outstanding question remains the relative importance of each mechanism for the historical and continued persistence of life on Earth.Gaia CharityUniversity of Exete
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Gaian bottlenecks and planetary habitability maintained by evolving model biospheres: The ExoGaia model
'Oxford University Press (OUP)', 2018Co-Authors: Ae Nicholson, Dm Wilkinson, Williams Htp, Tm LentonAbstract:This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.The search for habitable exoplanets inspires the question - how do habitable planets form? Planet habitability models traditionally focus on abiotic processes and neglect a biotic response to changing conditions on an inhabited planet. The Gaia Hypothesis postulates that life influences the Earth's feedback mechanisms to form a self-regulating system, and hence that life can maintain habitable conditions on its host planet. If life has a strong influence, it will have a role in determining a planet's habitability over time. We present the ExoGaia model - a model of simple 'planets' host to evolving microbial biospheres. Microbes interact with their host planet via consumption and excretion of atmospheric chemicals. Model planets orbit a 'star' which provides incoming radiation, and atmospheric chemicals have either an albedo, or a heat-trapping property. Planetary temperatures can therefore be altered by microbes via their metabolisms. We seed multiple model planets with life while their atmospheres are still forming and find that the microbial biospheres are, under suitable conditions, generally able to prevent the host planets from reaching inhospitable temperatures, as would happen on a lifeless planet. We find that the underlying geochemistry plays a strong role in determining long-term habitability prospects of a planet. We find five distinct classes of model planets, including clear examples of 'Gaian bottlenecks' - a phenomenon whereby life either rapidly goes extinct leaving an inhospitable planet, or survives indefinitely maintaining planetary habitability. These results suggest that life might play a crucial role in determining the long-term habitability of planets.We thank the Gaia Charity and the University of Exeter for their support of this work
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Multiple states of environmental regulation in well-mixed model biospheres.
'Elsevier BV', 2016Co-Authors: Ae Nicholson, Dm Wilkinson, Williams Htp, Tm LentonAbstract:This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier via the DOI in this record.The Gaia Hypothesis postulates that life influences Earth's feedback mechanisms to form a self regulating system. This provokes the question: how can global self-regulation evolve? Most models demonstrating environmental regulation involving life have relied on alignment between local selection and global regulation. In these models environment-improving individuals or communities spread to outcompete environment degrading individuals/communities, leading to global regulation, but this depends on local differences in environmental conditions. In contrast, well-mixed components of the Earth system, such as the atmosphere, lack local environmental differentiation. These previous models do not explain how global regulation can emerge in a system with no well defined local environment, or where the local environment is overwhelmed by global effects. We present a model of self-regulation by 'microbes' in an environment with no spatial structure. These microbes affect an abiotic 'temperature' as a byproduct of metabolism. We demonstrate that global self-regulation can arise in the absence of spatial structure in a diverse ecosystem without localised environmental effects. We find that systems can exhibit nutrient limitation and two temperature limitation regimes where the temperature is maintained at a near constant value. During temperature regulation, the total temperature change caused by the microbes is kept near constant by the total population expanding or contracting to absorb the impacts of new mutants on the average affect on the temperature per microbe. Dramatic shifts between low temperature regulation and high temperature regulation can occur when a mutant arises that causes the sign of the temperature effect to change. This result implies that self-regulating feedback loops can arise without the need for spatial structure, weakening criticisms of the Gaia Hypothesis that state that with just one Earth, global regulation has no mechanism for developing because natural selection requires selection between multiple entities.We thank the Gaia Charity and the University of Exeter for their support of this work
