This week we will discuss the interconnectedness and kinship of all life on Earth \u2013 through evolution from one common ancestor, to the unique evolution of eucaryotic cells by symbiogenesis, to the omnipresent symbiosis between living organisms. We will read texts by Lynn Margulis, a biologist, who studied primarily microorganisms and whose perspective on the role of symbiogenesis has changed the understanding of the evolution of life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lynn Margulis. <\/strong>The Symbiotic Planet.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Prologue<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chapter 1 – Symbiosis Everywhere<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chapter 3 – Individuality by Incorporation (first 6 pages)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chapter 7 – Ashore<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chapter 8 – Gaia<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Thomas Halliday. Collaborations<\/strong>. In: Otherlands: A World in the Making<\/a> (pp. 200-217)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Robin Wall Kimmerer. Umbilicaria.<\/strong> The Belly Button of the World. In: Braiding Sweetgrass. Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants<\/a> (pp. 260-268) <\/p>\n\n\n\n The author writes in the prologue: \u201cOur outlooks shape what we see and how we know. Any idea we conceive as fact or truth is integrated into an entire style of thought, of which we are usually unaware.\u201d Can you think of ways that your cultural upbringing influences your perception and worldview?<\/p>\n\n\n\n What is it like to realize that all known life on Earth has one origin, one universal ancestor? To know that all life is related, genetically and biochemically?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The text discusses mycorhisia extensively. Are there any other cases of symbiosis that you know of and find fascinating?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do you think that scientists are still affected by anthropocentric assumptions? Why? If so, how?<\/p>\n\n\n\n What do you think makes the idea of symbiogenesis so controversial in the eyes of many people?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why is it so hard in our daily lives to realize the interconnectedness and interdependence of life, including our own human lives? What would change if we were more aware of it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why is it never in the imaginary ranking of importance on Earth that nature comes first, but rather a human, or God? Why don’t we as society value nature as equal living spirit?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The concept of \u201cmother nature\u201d may be a powerful fiction that gives a sense of unity with the environment. What are the fictions and belief systems that drive us the opposite direction – towards commodification of nature?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Explain the concept of \u2018Hypersea\u2019 as you understand it. How is symbiosis, the core concept of the book, related to the emergence of this idea?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do you agree that \u201canimated water\u201d is a good way to describe life?<\/p>\n\n\n\n How do you feel about the idea of Gaia? Are you more comfortable with the idea of \u201cweak\u201d or \u201cstrong\u201d Gaia?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is the concept of Gaia a testable scientific hypothesis, or is it more like a metaphor? Is science ever anything more than a metaphor? What are the processes that make one metaphor more plausible than another one? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Why do we imagine our future mostly full of technologies, without any living species other than humans? Is it because we still adore the technological progress as we did a hundred years ago, or is it because we fear it now?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Where does this idea of people traveling through space all alone, as in Star Trek, come from? Did you believe it was possible, maybe as a child? Do you find it attractive and alluring, or rather sad and alienating? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Lynn Margulis<\/strong>. What is Life?<\/a> (book)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lynn Margulis, Dorion Sagan<\/strong>. Microcosmos. Four Billion Years of Microbial Evolution<\/a> (book)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Merlin Sheldrake<\/strong>. Mycorrhizal Fungi<\/a>. Aeon (video)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Scott F. Gilbert, Jan Sapp and Alfred I. Tauber<\/strong>. A Symbiotic View of Life: We Have Never Been Individuals<\/a> (text)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Margaret McFall-Ngai et al.<\/strong> Animals in a bacterial world, a new imperative for the life sciences<\/a> (text)<\/p>\n\n\n\n James Lovelock, Lynn Margulis<\/strong>. Atmospheric homeostasis by and for the biosphere: the Gaia hypothesis<\/a> (text)<\/p>\n\n\n\nquestions for discussion <\/h4>\n\n\n\n
additional resources<\/h4>\n\n\n\n