The hypothesis of Gaia (Earth) that states that the evolution of rocks and the evolution of life can be closely related and not separate processes was proposed in 1972 by James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis.
James Lovelock, a British chemist invited to NASA by California, who was preparing to launch a series of probes, was designed to assess the likelihood of life on Mars and Venus and to create equipment for detecting scant concentrations of various chemical elements in the atmosphere. D. Lovelock formulated his own method of entropy analysis.
In a dead world, entropy is increasing. Left to its own devices, the atmosphere of a lifeless planet sooner or later balances its own content, reaching energy peace. Entropy growth is counteracted by life, which consumes energetically active elements and throws away dead slag. Therefore, a planet with an atmosphere of carbon dioxide will almost certainly be lifeless. On the contrary, the presence of oxygen should indicate the presence of life.
D. Lovelock came to the idea that earthly life has learned to maintain the conditions of existence necessary for itself, having entered into a form of mutually beneficial cooperation with the planet. The writer William Golding suggested to D. Lovelock to name the theory in honor of the ancient Greek goddess of the Earth – the Gaia hypothesis.
NASA met the hypothesis with hostility, and the famous biologist Richard Dawkins argued that the “Gaia hypothesis” contradicts Darwin’s theory of evolution. Another famous evolutionary biologist, Stephen Jay Gould, has also criticized the Gaia hypothesis.
Gaia’s theory has advocates and followers. In 1970, Lynn Margulis, a biologist at Boston University, suggested that microorganisms should play a connecting role in the field of interaction between life and the planet. Lovelock made his famous “sulfuric prediction”: Until then, it was believed that sulfur, washed into the ocean from the soil, returns to land in the form of hydrogen sulfide. Lovelock doubted this, in 1971 he organized a research expedition aboard the RV Shackleton and proved: sulfur rises into the atmosphere in the form of dimethyl sulfide (DMS), produced by decaying seaweed. So Gaia’s hypothesis received the first practical confirmation.
The regulation of the salinity of the oceans, the percentage of oxygen and CO2 in the atmosphere, is almost impossible to explain without taking into account the influence of living organisms, which can certainly be considered in favor of the Gaia theory.
The decisive role in the development of the Gaia theory was played by the computer world created by Lovelock Daisyworld – a model of planetary life, based precisely on the principles of Darwin’s theory of evolution. In 2002, evolutionist Tim Lenton (East Anglia University), stated that the hypothesis not only does not contradict Darwin’s teachings, but also complements it. A year later, Takeshi Sugimoto (Kanagawa University) showed how the adaptation processes discovered by Darwin stimulate “gaia” processes, helping life strengthen its position on our planet.
In 2008, a team of scientists led by Professor Brent Christner from the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Louisiana discovered that bacteria, in particular Pseudomonas syringae, could be responsible for the formation of almost all sediments. It has been proven that bacteria can travel long distances with clouds and cause rainfall around the world at reasonably high temperatures. This discovery is considered another confirmation of the Gaia hypothesis.
The theory of Gaia, even sounds fantastic, is actually one of the modern scientific theories about the development of geological and biological processes on earth. It is amazing how little it is known to wide public compared to, for example, Darwin’s theory of evolution. Perhaps this is due to the fact that this theory involves a careful attitude of human beings to nature and a great responsibility for their actions, which our society, unfortunately, is not ready to manifest.
Featured image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay