The Symbiotic Planet

Lynn Margulis is probably the person most associated with the development of the theory of symbiosis. In The Symbiotic Planet: A New Look at Evolution she discusses some of the aspects of symbiosis, and how it has shaped life on earth. She explains the development of Serial Endosymbiosis Theory, and goes on to look at the origin of life on earth, and the origin of sex. All the while Margulis emphasises the problems which occur when we insist on thinking of life as consisting of individual organisms, for instance in the way we give them names. The final chapter discusses the planetwide symbiosis known as Gaia.

I felt that the chapters of this book could best be seen as a collection of separate essays, rather than the development of a single thread, which is what I had expected. Possibly more disconcerting is the fact that Margulis always seems to have to be disagreeing with someone. If this had been a book about how she challenged and overcame the forces of orthodoxy then it would have been worth reading, but unfortunately the disagreements tend to take on the form of background noise, which I felt detracted from the rest of the book. But if you don't mind that style of writing then you'll find many interesting ideas in this book.