Rating: 
Summary: Away With The Fairies
Review: A prime example of non-science. The author should read Popper and learn what it is to propose an hypothesis that can be tested, and thus add to the body of scientific knowledge rather than simply making up stories about his own pseudoscientific beliefs. For the New Age Fairies.
Rating: 
Summary: Science for Humanity!
Review: If you believe Science is unnecessarily baffling,...if you believe our Earth is suffering because of an unexamined drive for "progress",...if you enjoy masterful writing,...READ "GAIA'S BODY: Toward a Physiology of Earth..!" Dr. Tyler Volk has worked as a principle researcher for NASA on how a global system supports life. He is not only at the top of his field, Atmospheric Chemistry, but he writes with humility, warmth and immediacy. Even if you don't understand ALL of the "hard Science", you will be delighted at what Tyler Volk DOES render easily understood. If you, like Karl Popper(rest his soul), would like hierarchies to remain as they are, and prefer a harsh, thwarting sort of Science, proceed at your own discomfort. If you love learning, and believe it should be a pleasure, proceed happily!
Rating:
Summary: Science for Humanity!
Review: If you believe Science is unnecessarily baffling,...if you believe our Earth is suffering because of an unexamined drive for "progress",...if you enjoy masterful writing,...READ "GAIA'S BODY: Toward a Physiology of Earth..!" Dr. Tyler Volk has worked as a principle researcher for NASA on how a global system supports life. He is not only at the top of his field, Atmospheric Chemistry, but he writes with humility, warmth and immediacy. Even if you don't understand ALL of the "hard Science", you will be delighted at what Tyler Volk DOES render easily understood. If you, like Karl Popper, would like hierarchies to remain as they are, and prefer a harsh, thwarting sort of Science, proceed at your own discomfort. If you love learning, and believe it should be a pleasure, proceed happily!
Rating:
Summary: Science for Humanity!
Review: If you believe Science is unnecessarily baffling,...if you believe our Earth is suffering because of an unexamined drive for "progress",...READ "GAIA'S BODY: Toward a Physiology of Earth..!" Dr. Tyler Volk has worked as a principle researcher for NASA on how a global system supports life. He is not only at the top of his field, Atmospheric Chemistry, but he writes with humility, warmth and immediacy. Even if you don't understand ALL of the "hard Science", you will be delighted at what Tyler Volk renders easily understood. If you, like Karl Popper(rest his soul), would like hierarchies to remain as they are, and prefer a harsh, thwarting sort of Science, proceed at your own discomfort. If you love learning, and believe it should be a pleasure, proceed happily.
Rating: 
Summary: A unique take on Gaia, born from my research and vision.
Review: My goal was to write the best book about the role of life on the global scale. This is a hot topic. Humans are altering the planet's climate and chemistry. Our ability to accurately predict the consequences of our actions will depend on an understanding of nature at the very largest scale. We know that an oak tree in Ohio and a bacterium in the waters around Antarctica are intimately connected by the atmosphere on a rather short time scale. Tree and bacterium are like two cells linked by the air as circulatory system, as if within a great body. How does this body work?British scientist Jim Lovelock bestowed the word for the ancient Greek goddess of Earth, "Gaia," upon the closely coupled system of air, ocean, soil, and life. He has spoken about this system as a "superorganism." I value the influence that Lovelock's technical and popular writings have had on my scientific work. But my book is most definitely not a rehash of Lovelock's ideas. It presents a unique take on Gaia, born from my research and vision. In a somewhat overly simplified nutshell: Lovelock is concerned with the stabilization of the environment by life; I am concerned with the amplification of life by its own activities at the nodes of chemical transformations within the biosphere's cycles of matter. In an even smaller nutshell, "Gaia's Body" is about the power of life. I attempt to reveal the inner dynamics of this power. I am a professor of biology at New York University (NYU), with nearly twenty years of research on life as an organ within the biosphere. I enjoy hearing from readers. Here is how the book begins: "Silver City, New Mexico: Into the cloudless, burning blue skies of late June, just when the desert landscape is starting to bake from months of drought, fingers of moisture start drawing up out of the Gulf of Mexico."
Rating:
Summary: A highly readable account of how Gaia's parts interact.
Review: This book is required reading for all those interested in how the parts of global biosphere ("Gaia") interact. It is pleasure to read, thanks to the knowledge and writing talent of the author. Volk introduces the concept of a metabolizing Gaia, with its parts consisting of kingdoms, cycles, pools, etc., depending on the perspective of the observer. He suggests the fundamental "actors" in this metabolism are biochemical "guilds", such as nitrogen fixers, and respirers, which cut across divisions such as kingdoms. In Volk's interpretation, Gaia is not a living organism, nor does it or its parts necessarily remain at homeostasis, but it has a metabolism, a geophysiology. His calculations of the phenomenal surface areas of bacteria and fungi demonstrate the potential of life as a powerful geological force. I am proud to say that some of Volk's discussion draws on our very fruitful collaboration studying the biotic influence on weathering and climate, which started from our first meeting at the historic American Geophysical Union conference on Gaia in 1988.
Rating:
Summary: Away With The Fairies
Review: Tyler Volk created a thoughtful and well written book that clearly defines the biogeochemical mechanisms that govern the biosphere. Reading this book is like reading a gripping who-dunit - you don't want to put it down. The "Gaia in Time" chapter captivated me with its analogy of viewing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels as an integral of a complex web of biogeochemical cycles. How this proxy was shifted by cryptogamic microbial crusts, photosynthetic organisms, nitrogen fixers, non-photosynthetic sulfide oxidizers, land plants, and calcareous plankton fascinated me. If you read one book on the Gaia hypothesis, this should be it.
Rating:
Summary: Gaia explained
Review: Tyler Volk created a thoughtful and well written book that clearly defines the biogeochemical mechanisms that govern the biosphere. Reading this book is like reading a gripping who-dunit - you don't want to put it down. The "Gaia in Time" chapter captivated me with its analogy of viewing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels as an integral of a complex web of biogeochemical cycles. How this proxy was shifted by cryptogamic microbial crusts, photosynthetic organisms, nitrogen fixers, non-photosynthetic sulfide oxidizers, land plants, and calcareous plankton fascinated me. If you read one book on the Gaia hypothesis, this should be it.
Rating: 
Summary: Science as poetry; the big picture!
Review: Tyler Volk has an ability -- unusual among "hard" scientists -- to transform the facts of science, even its numbers and chemical reactions, into readable prose, almost poetry at times. He is clearly trying to reintroduce a sense of awe at the workings of the cosmos into our discourse. He succeeds in this by remythologizing the major forces at work on the planet: Helios (sun), Gaia (earth), and Vulcan (subsurface processes). This is a very much needed and refreshing change. Even more importantly, Volk keeps his eye steadfastly on the "big picture": the global processes that keep our planet's biosphere going at every level from atomic to cosmic, unobstructed by the petty personal or nationalistic concerns that occupy the minds of most people. And he presents strong evidence concerning the impact that Life itself has upon the ecosystem, as a fourth player. This is an excellent integration of the sciences with human philosophical thought, a poetic exposition of Jim Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis. While Volk argues that Gaia herself cannot be considered as a living system, because there is only one of her (I question this proposition!), he fully acknowledges the interrelationship of all her systems to form a well-woven, self-sustaining whole.
Rating:
Summary: The Unity of Life
Review: Volk takes an appealingly folksy and romantic concept and turns it into the stuff that even scientists can't scoff at. Seeing the interdependence of all living organisms in a system helps drive home the point that no human act is without repercussions. Volk's prose is vivid enough to please an English major, and substantive enough to subdue biogeochemists and their ilk the world over. Read Gaia's Body and see how molecular mechanisms can make meaning and metaphor for both poets and scientists.
|
