LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FOREWORD
Undreamt Philosophies, by Niles Eldredge

1 LIFE: THE ETERNAL ENIGMA In the Spirit of Schrödinger · Life’s
Body · Animism vs. Mechanism · Janus among the Centaurs · Blue Jewel ·
Is There Life on Mars? · Life as Verb · Self-Maintenance · The Autopoietic
Planet · The Stuff of Life · Mind in Nature

2 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

3 ONCE UPON A PLANET Beginnings · Hell on Earth · Spontaneous
Generation · Origins of Life · “Stumbling Forward” · Metabolic Windows ·
The RNA Supermolecule · Cells First

4 MASTERS OF THE BIOSPHERE Fear of a Bacterial Planet · Life Is
Bacteria · The Metabolically Gifted · The Gene Traders · Our Splendid Kin ·
From Plenty to Crisis · Breakfast Ferment · Green, Red, and Purple Beings ·
Oxygen Excitement · Quintessential Polluters, Quintessential Recyclers ·
Living Carpets and Growing Stones

5 PERMANENT MERGERS The Great 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

6 THE AMAZING ANIMALS The (Bower) Birds and the (Honey) Bees ·
What Is an Animal? · Great-Grandparent Trichoplax · Sex and Death ·
Cambrian Chauvinism · Evolutionary Exuberance · Messengers

7 FLESH OF THE EARTH The Underworld · Kissing Molds and Destroying
Angels · Cross-Kingdom Alliances · Underbelly of the Biosphere ·
Hitchhiking Fungi, Counterfeit Flowers, and Aphrodisiacs · Hallucinogenic
Mushrooms and Dionysian Delights · Transmigrators of Matter

8 THE TRANSMUTATION OF SUNLIGHT Green Fire · The Accursed
Share · Ancient Roots · Primeval Trees · Floral Persuasion · Solar Economy

9 SENTIENT SYMPHONY A Double Life · Choice · Little Purposes ·
Butler’s Blasphemy · Habits and Memory · Existence’s Celebration ·
Superhumanity · Expanding Life · Rhythms and Cycles

EPILOGUE
NOTES
GLOSSARY
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
SOURCES OF ILLUSTRATIONS
INDEX

About the Author

Lynn Margulis is Distinguished Professor in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She is the author of more than one hundred articles and ten books, including Symbiosis and Cell Evolution (second edition 1993). Dorion Sagan, general partner of Sciencewriters, is the author of Biospheres (1990). Together they are the authors of Microcosmos (California, 1996), What Is Sex? (1990), Garden of Microbial Delights (1995), and Mystery Dance (1991).

Reviews

"A masterpiece of science writing. . . . You will cherish "What Is Life? because it is so rich in poetry and science, in the service of profound philosophical questions."--Mitchell Thomashow, "Orion

To the question, what is life?, world renowned biologist Margulis and science writer Sagan (her coauthor on Mystery Dance, LJ 7/91, and her son) respond: Life is matter that chooses. Mammalian cells are descended from the amalgamation of different strains of ancient bacteria. All life is connected to us through time and space. Species of organisms diverge into new kinds, yet earlier patterns never entirely disappear. Every species of plant, animal, and fungus perishes, and similar new taxa evolve from them or their kind. The human species may eventually disappear, but something else will evolve from our kind. We learn that we are not the only creative and original creatures but part of a global aggregation. Yet while we are not the only species to make evolutionary choices, we are the ones whose choices will make a difference as to what type of planetary ecosystem we leave for those species that follow. Beautifully executed with numerous photos and illustrations, this thought-provoking work is recommended for general readers and informed lay readers.‘Gloria Maxwell, Kansas City P.L., Kan.

Table of Contents

About the Author

Reviews