Microcosmos: Four Billion Years of Microbial Evolution

Lynn Margulis, Dorion Sagan

University of California Press, May 29, 1997 - Nature - 300 pages

"Microcosmos is nothing less than the saga of the life of the planet. Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan have put it all together, literally, in this extraordinary book, which is unlike any treatment of evolution for a general readership that I have encountered before. A fascinating account that we humans should be studying now for clues to our own survival."—From the Foreword by Dr. Lewis Thomas

Microcosmos brings together the remarkable discoveries of microbiology in the later decades of the 20th century and the pioneering research of Dr. Margulis to create a vivid new picture of the world that is crucial to our understanding of the future of the planet. Addressed to general readers, the book provides a beautifully written view of evolution as a process based on interdependency and their interconnectedness of all life on the planet.

Contents

• Foreword: 9
• Preface: 13
• Acknowledgments: 25
• The Microcosm: 27
• Out of the Cosmos: 39
• The Animation of Matter: 47
• The Language of Nature: 59
• Entering the Microcosm: 69
• Sex and Worldwide Genetic Exchange: 85
• The Oxygen Holocaust: 99
• New Cells: 115
• Living Together: 127
• The Symbiotic Brain: 137
• The Riddle of Sex: 155
• Late Bloomers Animals and Plants: 167
• Egocentric Man: 193
• The Future Supercosm: 235
• Notes: 277
• Index: 285

About the author

Lynn Margulis was born in Chicago, Illinois on March 5, 1938. She graduated from the University of Chicago at the age of 18. She received a master's degree in genetics and zoology from the University of Wisconsin and a Ph.D. in genetics from the University of California, Berkeley. She taught for 22 years at Boston University before joining the faculty at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1988. She was best known for her theory of species evolution by symbiogensis. The manuscript in which she first presented her findings was published in 1967 by the Journal of Theoretical Biology. An expanded version, with additional evidence to support the theory, became her first book entitled Origin of Eukaryotic Cells. Her other works include Symbiosis in Cell Evolution, Luminous Fish: Tales of Science and Love, Dazzle Gradually: Reflections on the Nature of Nature, and Mind, Life, and Universe: Conversations with Great Scientists of Our Time. She died five days after suffering a hemorrhagic stroke on November 22, 2011 at the age of 73.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Microcosmos: Four Billion Years of Microbial Evolution; Biology/Ecology/Environmental studies
• Authors: Lynn Margulis, Dorion Sagan
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: University of California Press, 1997
• ISBN: 0520210646, 9780520210646
• Length: 300 pages
• Subjects: Nature / Environmental Conservation & Protection; Science / General; Science / Life Sciences / Biology; Science / Life Sciences / Evolution; Science / Life Sciences / Microbiology