See Also

James Lovelock

Dr James Ephraim Lovelock CH CBE Order of the British Empire

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British [i] order of chivalry [i] est ... 

 FRS Royal Society

The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Socie... 

, is an independent scientist, author, researcher and environmentalist who lives in Cornwall Cornwall

Cornwall is a county [i] in South West [i] ... 

, in the south west of Great Britain Great Britain

Great Britain is an island lying off the northwestern coast of mainland Europe [i] and to the east of Ireland [i] ... 

. He is most famous for proposing and popularizing the Gaia hypothesis, in which he postulates that the Earth functions as a kind of superorganism .

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Quotations

The climate and the chemical properties of the Earth now and throughout its history seem always to have been optimal for life. For this to have happened by chance is as unlikely as to survive unscathed a drive blindfold through rush hour traffic.

In the current fashionable denigration of technology, it is easy to forget that nuclear fission is a natural process. If something as intricate as life can assemble by accident, we need not marvel at the fission reactor, a relatively simple contraption, doing likewise.

Our planet...consists largely of lumps of fall-out from a star-sized hydrogen bomb...Within our bodies, no less than three million atoms rendered unstable in that event still erupt every minute, releasing a tiny fraction of the energy stored from that fierce fire of long ago.

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Encyclopedia



Dr James Ephraim Lovelock CH CBE Order of the British Empire

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British [i] order of chivalry [i] est ... 

 FRS Royal Society

The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Socie... 

, is an independent scientist, author, researcher and environmentalist who lives in Cornwall Cornwall

Cornwall is a county [i] in South West [i]... 

, in the south west of Great Britain Great Britain

Great Britain is an island lying off the northwestern coast of mainland Europe [i] and to the east of Ireland [i] ... 

. He is most famous for proposing and popularizing the Gaia hypothesis, in which he postulates that the Earth functions as a kind of superorganism .

Life history

Lovelock was born in Letchworth Garden City Letchworth

Letchworth, officially Letchworth Garden City, is a town in Hertfordshire [i], England [i]. ... 

. He studied chemistry Chemistry

Chemistry is the science [i] of matter [i] at the atom [i]ic to molecular [i] scale, dealing primarily ... 

 at the University of Manchester University of Manchester

The University of Manchester is a large university [i] located in Manchester [i], England [i]. ... 

 before taking up a Medical Research Council Medical Research Council (UK)

* Discovery, in 1918 [i], that influenza [i] is caused by a virus [i]
... 

 post at the Institute for Medical Research in London.

In 1948 he received a Ph.D. in medicine at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

|colspan="2" style="font-weight: bold; text-align: center; font-size: larger;"| London School of Hygiene & Tro... 

. Within the United States he has conducted research at Yale Yale University

Yale University is a private university in New Haven, Connecticut [i]. ... 

, Baylor University Baylor University

Baylor University is a private [i], Baptist [i]-affiliated research university [i] ... 

 College of Medicine, and Harvard University Harvard University

"Harvard" redirects here. For other uses of the name Harvard, see Harvard [i].
... 

.

Professional career

A lifelong inventor, Lovelock has created and developed many scientific instruments, some of which have been adopted by NASA NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the United States Government [i], res ... 

 in its program of planetary exploration. It was while working for NASA that Lovelock developed the Gaia Hypothesis.

In early 1961, Lovelock was engaged by NASA to develop sensitive instruments for the analysis of extraterrestrial atmospheres and planetary surfaces. The Viking program Viking program

NASA [i]'s Viking program consisted of two unmanned space mission [i]s to Mars [i], Viking 1 [i] a ... 

 that visited Mars Mars

Mars is the fourth planet [i] from the Sun [i] in our solar system [i] and is named after Mars [i] ... 

 in the late 1970s 1970s

The 1970s decade [i] refers to the years from 1970 [i] to 1979 [i], inclusive. ... 

 was motivated in part to determining whether Mars supported life, and many of the sensors and experiments that were ultimately deployed aimed to resolve this issue. During work towards this program, Lovelock became interested in the composition of the Martian atmosphere Mars

Mars is the fourth planet [i] from the Sun [i] in our solar system [i] and is named after Mars [i] ... 

, reasoning that any life forms on Mars would be obliged to make use of it . However, the atmosphere was found to be in a stable condition close to its chemical equilibrium, with very little oxygen Oxygen

Oxygen is a chemical element [i] with the chemical symbol O and atomic number [i] 8.... 

, methane Methane

The simplest hydrocarbon [i], methane, is a gas [i] with a chemical formula [i] of C [i]H [i] ... 

 or hydrogen Hydrogen

|-
| Triple point [i] || 13.8033 K, 7.042 kPa
... 

, but with an overwhelming abundance of carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide

Carbon dioxide is a chemical compound [i] composed of one carbon [i] and two oxygen [i] atoms. ... 

. To Lovelock, the stark contrast between the Martian atmosphere and chemically-dynamic mixture of that of the Earth was strongly indicative of the absence of life on the planet. However, when they were finally launched to Mars, the Viking probes still searched for life there. To date no evidence for either extant or extinct Extinction

In biology [i] and ecology [i], extinction is the cessation of existence of a species [i] or group of taxa [i]... 

 life has been found .

Lovelock invented the Electron Capture Detector, which ultimately assisted in discoveries about the persistence of CFC CFC (disambiguation)

CFC may stand for:
  • Canadian Forces College [i] : the command and staff college of the Canadian Armed Forces [i] ... 

    s and their role in stratospheric Stratosphere

    The stratosphere is a layer of Earth's atmosphere [i] that is stratified in temperature, with warmer lay ... 

     ozone depletion Ozone depletion

    The term ozone depletion is used to describe two distinct but related observations: a slow, steady d... 

    .


Lovelock is currently president of the Marine Biological Association, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society Royal Society

The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Socie... 

 in 1974, and in 1990 was awarded the first Dr. A.H. Heineken Prize for the Environment by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. An independent scientist, inventor, and author, Lovelock works out of a barn-turned-laboratory in Cornwall. In 2003 he was appointed a Companion of Honour  by Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom

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Elizabeth II is the Queen [i] of 16 independent sovereign [i] state [i] ... 

.

Controversy


Gaia

While the Gaia Hypothesis was readily accepted by many in the environmentalist community, it has not been fully accepted within the scientific community. Among its more famous critics are Richard Dawkins Richard Dawkins

Clinton Richard Dawkins is an eminent British [i] ethologist [i], evolutionary [i]... 

 and Ford Doolittle Ford Doolittle

Dr. W. Ford Doolittle is a biochemist [i].
... 

, and a detailed description of disputes surrounding it can be found here. Briefly, critics point out that since natural selection Natural selection

Natural selection is the process by which individual organism [i]s with favorable trait [i]s are... 

 operates on individuals, it is not obvious how planetary-scale homeostasis Homeostasis

Homeostasis is the property of an open system [i], especially living organism [i]s, to regu ... 

 can evolve. Lovelock has countered with models such as Daisyworld, which illustrate how individual-level effects can translate to planetary homeostasis. However, as Earth Systems Science is still in its infancy, it is not yet clear how the lessons from Daisyworld apply to the full complexity of the Earth's biosphere Biosphere

The biosphere is the outermost part of the planet [i]'s shell — including air [i] ... 

 and climate Climate

The climate is commonly considered to be the weather [i] averaged over a long period of time, typically ... 

.

Nuclear power

Lovelock has become concerned about the threat of global warming Global warming

Global warming is the observed increase in the average temperature [i] of ... 

 from the greenhouse effect Greenhouse effect

The greenhouse effect, first discovered by Joseph Fourier [i] in 1824 [i], and first investigated quanti ... 

. In 2004 he caused a media News media

The news media refers to the section of the mass media [i] that focuses on presenting current news [i] t... 

 sensation when he broke with many fellow environmentalists by pronouncing that "Only nuclear power Nuclear power

Nuclear power is the controlled use of nuclear reactions [i] to release energy for work including propulsion [i] ... 

 can now halt global warming". In his view, nuclear energy is the only realistic alternative to fossil fuel Fossil fuel

Fossil fuels are hydrocarbon [i]s formed from the remains of dead plants and animals. ... 

s that has the capacity to both fulfil the large scale energy needs of mankind while also reducing greenhouse emissions.

In 2005, against the backdrop of renewed UK United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a country and sovereign state [i] tha ... 

 government interest in nuclear power, Lovelock again publicly announced his support for nuclear energy, stating, "I am a Green, and I entreat my friends in the movement to drop their wrongheaded objection to nuclear energy".

Although Lovelock's interventions in the public debate on nuclear power are recent, his views on it are longstanding. In his 1988 book The Ages Of Gaia he states: "I have never regarded nuclear radiation Radioactive decay

Radioactive decay is the set of various processes by which unstable atomic nuclei [i] ... 

 or nuclear power as anything other than a normal and inevitable part of the environment. Our prokaryotic forebears evolved on a planet-sized lump of fallout Nuclear fallout

Fallout is the residual radiation hazard from a nuclear explosion [i], so named because it "falls out" o ... 

 from a star Star

A star is a massive, compact body of plasma [i] in outer space [i] that is held together by its ... 

-sized nuclear explosion, a supernova Supernova

A supernova is a stellar [i] explosion [i] which produces an extremely bright [i] ... 

 that synthesised Nucleosynthesis

Nucleosynthesis is the process of creating new atomic nuclei from preexisting nucleons .... 

 the elements Chemical element

A chemical element, often called simply an element, is a substance [i] that can... 

 that go to make our planet and ourselves."

Mass Human Extinction

Writing in the British newspaper The Independent The Independent

The Independent is a British [i] compact [i] newspaper [i] published by Tony O'Reilly [i] ... 

 in January 2006, Lovelock argues that, as a result of global warming, "billions of us will die and the few breeding pairs of people that survive will be in the Arctic where the climate remains tolerable" by the end of the Twenty First century . He claims that by the end of the century, the average temperature in temperate regions will increase by as much as 8°C and by up to 5°C in the tropics, leaving much of the world's land uninhabitable and unsuitable for farming. He suggests that "we have to keep in mind the awesome pace of change and realise how little time is left to act, and then each community and nation must find the best use of the resources they have to sustain civilisation for as long as they can."

Books





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External links

  • , acceptance speech for Blue Planet Prize 1997