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Lynn Margulis

Lynn Margulis Books

Biologist

What is Life?

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“The idea that we are "stewards of the earth" is another symptom of human arrogance. Imagine yourself with the task of overseeing your body's physical processes. Do you understand the way it works well enough to keep all its systems in operation? Can you make your kidneys function? Can you control the removal of waste? Are you conscious of the blood flow through your arteries, or the fact that you are losing a hundred thousand skin cells a minute?”

WayHumansWellsIdeasEnoughFactsBodyEarthProcessImagineBloodMinutesThousandWasteLosingConsciousHundredFlowTasksSkinsFunctionEnvironmentalYour BodyCellsOperationsArroganceSymptomsStewardshipRemovalKidneysStewardsArteriesBlood FlowOverseeing
Author:Lynn Margulis
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“Body concentrates order. It continuously self-repairs. Every five days you get a new stomach lining. You get a new liver every two months. Your skin replaces itself every six weeks. Every year, 98 percent of the atoms of your body are replaced. This non-stop chemical replacement, metabolism, is a sure sign of life.”

YearsTwoSelfBodyOrderFiveWeekMonthsSixPercentSkinsYour BodyStomachChemicalsAtomsReplacedLiverTwo MonthsReplacementsMetabolismNon StopSigns Of Life
Book:What is Life?
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“To me, the human move to take responsibility for the living Earth is laughable - the rhetoric of the powerless. The planet takes care of us, not we of it. Our self-inflated moral imperative to guide a wayward Earth, or heal our sick planet, is evidence of our immense capacity for self delusion. Rather, we need to protect ourselves from ourselves.”

NeedsHumansSelfCareEarthMovingResponsibilityMoralPlanetsProtectEvidenceCapacitySickTake CareGuidesHealDelusionImmenseRhetoricPowerlessTaking ResponsibilityImperativesSelf DelusionLaughable
Author:Lynn Margulis
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“The notion of saving the planet has nothing to do with intellectual honesty or science. The fact is that the planet was here long before us and will be here long after us. The planet is running fine. What people are talking about is saving themselves and saving their middle-class lifestyles and saving their cash flow.”

PeopleLongFactsRunningTalkingClassMiddleHonestyPlanetsFineIntellectualFlowNotionLifestyleSavingMiddle ClassCashCash FlowIntellectual Honesty
Author:Lynn Margulis
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“Neo-Darwinian language and conceptual structure itself ensures scientific failure: Major questions posed by zoologists cannot be answered from inside the neo-Darwinian straitjacket. Such questions include, for example, 'How do new structures arise in evolution?' 'Why, given so much environmental change, is stasis so prevalent in evolution as seen in the fossil record?' 'How did one group of organisms or set of macromolecules evolve from another?' The importance of these questions is not at issue; it is just that neo-Darwinians, restricted by their resuppositions, cannot answer them.”

LanguageGivenAnswersIssuesRecordsGroupsExampleEvolutionMajorsImportanceStructureEnvironmentalAriseEvolveOrganismsFossilsStasisZoologistEnvironmental Change
Book:Slanted Truths: Essays on Gaia, Symbiosis and Evolution
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“Although random mutations influenced the course of evolution, their influence was mainly by loss, alteration, and refinement... Never, however, did that one mutation make a wing, a fruit, a woody stem, or a claw appear. Mutations, in summary, tend to induce sickness, death, or deficiencies. No evidence in the vast literature of heredity changes shows unambiguous evidence that random mutation itself, even with geographical isolation of populations, leads to speciation.”

ShowsCoursesLiteratureLossInfluenceEvolutionEvidenceWingsFruitPopulationIsolationSicknessStemDeficiencyRefinementClawsWoodyAlterationsHeredityMutationSummarySpeciation
Author:Lynn Margulis
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