What Is Life?

340 Pages·2000·121.571 MB·English

by  Lynn Margulis, Dorion Sagan

Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan
Foreu-ord b), Niles Eldredge
I
WHAT IS LIFE?
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The publisher gratefully acknowledges the generous
contribution to this book provided by the following
organizations and individuals:
Elizabeth Durein
Orville and Ellina Colub
David B. Cold Foundation
Moore Family Foundation
and by the Ceneral Endowment Fund of the
Associates of the University of California Press.
LYNN MARCULIS
DORION SACAN
FOREWORD BY
NlLES ELDREDCE
A Peter N. Nevraumont Book
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley and Los Angeles
University of California Pres
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
Published by arrangement with Simon & Schuster.
First paperback printing zooo.
@ 1995 by Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan
Foreword O 1995 by Niles Eldredge
Glossary @ zooo by Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan
The Sources of Illustrations ortpage 269 is regarded as
an extension of the copyright page.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Margulis, Lynn, r93 8-
What is life? / Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan ;
foreword by Niles Eldredge.
'A Peter N. iv"rrrr-or,PUootIi
Originally published: NewYork :
Simon & Schuster, @ rqgS. With new glossary.
Includes bibliographical reGrences (p. ) and index.
ISBN o-5zo-zzozr-8 (pbk. : alk. paper)
I. Life @iology) z. Biology-Philosophy.
3. Biological diversity. 4. Life-Origin.
I. Sagan, Dorion, rg59- II. Tide.
QH5or.M35 zooo
57o-dczr oo-o25833
Manufactured in Canada
09 08 o7 o6 oj 04 03 02 ot oo
ro 9 I I 6 S 4 3 z r
The paper used in this publication meets the
minimum requirements of ANSI/NISO 239.48-t9gz
(R rqSZ) (Permanenrc of Papu). @
Contents
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS vil
FOREWORD
Undreamt Philosophies, by Niles Eldredge xi
LIFE: THE ETERNAL ENIGMA ln the Spirit of Schrodinger ' Life's
Body ' Animism vs. Mechanism ' Janus among the Centaurs ' Blue iewel '
ls There Life on Mars? . Life as Verb . Self-Maintenance ' The Autopoietic
Planet . The Stuff of Life ' Mind in Nature 'l
LOST SOULS Death: The Great Perplexer The Breath of Life
Cartesian License . Entering the Forbidden Realm ' Cosmic Wiggles '
The Meaning of Evolution . Vernadsky's Biosphere ' Lovelock's Gaia 33
ONCE UPON A PLANET Beginnings . Hell on Earth ' Spontaneous
Generation ' Origins of Life . "stumbling Forward" ' Metabolic Windows '
The RNA Supermolecule . Cells First 57
MASTERS OF THE BIOSPHERE Fear of a Bacterial Planet'Life ls
Bacteria . The Metabolically Gifted ' The Cene Traders ' Our Splendid Kin '
From Plenty to Crisis . Breakfast Ferment' Creen, Red, and Purple Beings '
Oxygen Excitement . Quintessential Polluters, Quintessential Recyclers '
Stones
Living Carpets and Crowlng 87
PERMANENT MERGERS The Creat Cell Divide' Five Kinds of Beings '
Twists in the Tree of Life . Squirmers ' Strange New Fruit ' Wallin's
Symbionts' Multicellularity and Programmed Death 'Sexual Genesis in the
Microworld, or When Eating Was Sex 'The Power of Slime 113
THE AMAZING ANIMALS The (Bower) Birds and the (Honey) Bees '
What ls an Animal? ' Great-Crandparent Trichoplax ' Sex and Death '
Cambrian Chauvinism ' Evolutionary Exuberance' Messengers 145
FLESH OF THE EARTH The Underworld . Kissing Molds and Destroy-
. .
ing Angels Cross-Kingdom Alliances Underbelly of the Biosphere .
Hitchhiking Fungi, Counterfeit Flowers, and Aphrodisiacs . Hallucinogenic
Mushrooms and Dionysian Delights .Transmigrators of Matter 171
THE TRANSMUTATION OF SUNLIcHT Green Fire . The Accursed
Share . Ancient Roots . Primeval Trees . Floral Persuasion . Solar Economy
193
SENTIENT SYMPHONY A Double Life . Choice . Little Purposes .
.
Butler's Blasphemy Habits and Memory Existence's Celebration
Superhumanity . Expanding Life . Rhythms and Cycles 213
EPILOGUE 245
NOTES 247
GLOSSARY 255
ACKNOWTEDGMENTS 265
SOURCES OF ILLUSTRATIONS 269
INDEX 271
lllustratio ns
PLATES (following page 1441
ra. Earth in space
rs. Mycoplasma
2. Intestine of beetle larva (Pachnoda)
3. X-ray photograph of the sun
4. Cylinders of phospholipids forming liposomes
5A. Patterns of growth, Proteus mirabilis bacteria
5n. Dissipative structure in a Belousov-Zhaborinsky reaction
6. Multicellular "trees" of Myxococcus
7. Chromatium uinosum, purple sulfirr bacteria
8. Fischerella, cyanobacterium
9. Stromatolites in Shark Bay, Australia
roa and s. Petrified fossil stromatolite compared
to a living microbial mat
tr. Mesodinium rubrum (Myrionecta rubra), a cliate
rz. Telophase in the mitotic cells of Haemanthus sp.,
African blood lily
13e,. Chlamydomonas niualis, snow algae, in Antarctica
r3r. Chloromonas sp., snow algae, and filamentous fungi
t3c. Chlamydomonas niualis, microscopic view
r4. Voluox colonies
r 5. Adult Lima scabra, scallop
16. Embryo of Drosophila melanogaster, fruit fly
r7. Undulipodium cross section
vil
vilt lllustrations
r 84. Angler fish with bioluminescent tissue
r 8n. Bioluminescent bacteria colonies
19A. Russula paludosa, forest mushroom
ryr. Schizophyllum commune) fungus
zo. A chloroplast
zr. Quaking aspen in San Juan Mountains, Colorado
zz. Diatorn meiosis and gamete formation
23. Glossopteris scutum, fossil seed fern
24. Pollen tubes deliver male nuclei to Gmale egg nuclei
25. Papaver somnferwm, poppy
26. Satellite image of Earth showing major zones of vegetation
FIGURES
r. Erwin Schrcidinger
z. Comparison of atmospheres of Earth, Venus,
and Mars 2'l
3. Fluctuations of carbon dioxide in the northern
hemisphere
24
4. Oxalic acid crystal in a sea squirt 26
5. Emiliana huxleyi, a coccolithophorid 53
6. Three-way genetic exchange among bacteria 95
7. Comparison of prokaryote and eukaryote cells 115
8. Trichonympha. a ptotist '122
9. Spirochetes become undulipodia 124
ro. Stages of mitosis 125
rt. Naegleria, a protist 138
rz. Stephanodiscus, a diatom 143
r 3. Sexual life history of an animal 146
14. Eschiniscus blumi, a "water bear" 169
r 5. Sexual life history of a fungus 173
16. Gall on a twig of Quercus, oak tree 180