Daisyworld

Abstract

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, James Lovelock, an independent inventor and scientist, and Lynn Margulis, a professor at Boston University, worked with the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory to develop a means to detect life on Mars. It was noted in the progress of this work that one striking property of the Earth is that its atmosphere is far from chemical equilibrium since the biota use it as a resevoir for nutrients and waste products. In other words, the atmosphere is, in the steady state, not derived of ordinary chemistry and physics. In fact, it is derived of life.

One ring to rule them all, one ring to bind them, one ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Part 1, 1965.

We wish to thank Nathan Gardner for his contributions to this chapter.