 |
|
|
Item Details
| Title:
|
SCIENTISTS DEBATE GAIA
THE NEXT CENTURY |
| By: |
Stephen Henry Schneider (Editor), James R. Miller (Editor), Eileen Crist (Editor) |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| List price:
|
£7.99 |
| Our price: |
£5.99 |
| Discount: |
|
| You save:
|
£2.00 |
|
|
|
|
|
| ISBN 10: |
0262693690 |
| ISBN 13: |
9780262693691 |
| Availability: |
Usually dispatched within 1-3 weeks.
 Delivery
rates
|
| Stock: |
Currently 0 available |
| Publisher: |
MIT PRESS LTD |
| Pub. date: |
22 August, 2008 |
| Series: |
Scientists Debate Gaia |
| Pages: |
400 |
| Description: |
Leading scientists bring the controversy over Gaia up to date by exploring a broad range of recent thinking on Gaia theory. |
| Synopsis: |
Scientists Debate Gaia is a multidisciplinary reexamination of the Gaia hypothesis, which was introduced by James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis in the early 1970s. The Gaia hypothesis holds that Earth's physical and biological processes are linked to form a complex, self-regulating system and that life has affected this system over time. Until a few decades ago, most of the earth sciences viewed the planet through disciplinary lenses: biology, chemistry, geology, atmospheric and ocean studies. The Gaia hypothesis, on the other hand, takes a very broad interdisciplinary approach. Its most controversial aspect suggests that life actively participates in shaping the physical and chemical environment on which it depends in a way that optimizes the conditions for life. Despite initial dismissal of the Gaian approach as New Age philosophy, it has today been incorporated into mainstream interdisciplinary scientific theory, as seen in its strong influence on the field of Earth System Science. Scientists Debate Gaia provides a fascinating, multi-faceted examination of Gaia as science and addresses significant criticism of, and changes in, the hypothesis since its introduction.In the book, 53 contributors explore the scientific, philosophical, and theoretical foundations of Gaia. They address such topics as the compatibility of natural selection and Gaian processes, Gaia and the "thermodynamics of life," the role of computer models in Gaian science (from James Lovelock's famous but controversial "Daisyworld" to more sophisticated models that use the techniques of artificial life), pre-Socratic precedents for the idea of a "Living Earth," and the climate of the Amazon Basin as a Gaian system. |
| Illustrations: |
109 illus. |
| Publication: |
US |
| Imprint: |
MIT Press |
| Returns: |
Returnable |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
No Cheese, Please!
A fun picture book for children with food allergies - full of friendship and super-cute characters!Little Mo the mouse is having a birthday party.
|
My Brother Is a Superhero
Luke is massively annoyed about this, but when Zack is kidnapped by his arch-nemesis, Luke and his friends have only five days to find him and save the world...
|
|
|
|
|