Science I

'Art is the expression of
the profoundest thoughts
in the simplest way.'

Albert Einstein

1. A Cardan Grille
(46cm x 61cm)

2. Complex Systems Theory
(43cm x 61cm)

3. Cave Dwellers
(56cm x 91.5cm)

4. Precise Molecules
(61cm x 61cm)

5. Art As A Weapon Of
Choice.
(56cm x 91.5cm)

6. What Chance Life Out
There ?
(30.5cm 53.5cm)

7. When One Is
(56cm x 91.5cm)

8. Epic
(61cm x 61cm)

9. Core.
(61cm x 61cm)

NB. All paintings acrylic on
board unless otherwise
stated.

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Lovelock defined Gaia as:

a complex entity involving the Earth's biosphere, atmosphere, oceans, and soil; the totality constituting a feedback or cybernetic system which seeks
an optimal physical and
chemical environment for life
on this planet.
His initial hypothesis was that
the biomass modifies the conditions on the planet to
make conditions on the planet more hospitable the Gaia Hypothesis properly defined this "hospitality" as a
full homeostasis. Lovelock's
initial hypothesis, accused of
being teleological by his critics,
was that the atmosphere is
kept in homeostasis by and for
the biosphere.

Lovelock suggested that life on Earth provides a cybernetic, homeostatic feedback system operated automatically and unconsciously by the biota, leading to broad stabilization
of global temperature and chemical composition.

With his initial hypothesis, Lovelock claimed the existence
of a global control system of surface temperature,
atmosphere composition and ocean salinity. His arguments were:

The global surface temperature of the Earth has remained
constant, despite an increase in the energy provided by the
Sun.
Atmospheric composition remainsconstant, even though
it should be unstable.
Ocean salinity is constant.
Since life started on Earth, the energy provided by the Sun has increased by 25% to 30%;[8] however the surface temperature of the planet has remained remarkably constant when measured on a global scale. Furthermore, he argued, the atmospheric composition of the Earth is constant.[9] The Earth's atmosphere currently consists
of 79% nitrogen, 20.7%
oxygen and 0.03% carbon dioxide. Oxygen is the second most reactive element after fluorine, and should combine with gases and minerals of the Earth's atmosphere and crust. Traces
of methane (at an amount of 100,000 tonnes produced per annum)[10] should not exist,
as methane is combustible in
an oxygen atmosphere. This composition should be unstable, and its stability can only have been maintained with removal
or production by living organisms.

Ocean salinity has been
constant at about 3.4% for a very long time.[11] Salinity stability is important as most cells require a rather constant salinity and do not generally tolerate values above 5%. Ocean salinity constancy was a long-standing mystery, because river salts should have raised the ocean salinity much higher than observed. Recently it was suggested[12] that salinity may also be strongly influenced by seawater circulation through
hot basaltic rocks, and
emerging as hot water vents on ocean spreading ridges. However, the composition of sea water is far from equilibrium, and it is difficult to explain this fact without the influence of
organic processes.

The only significant natural source of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) is volcanic activity, while the only
significant removal is through
the precipitation of carbonate rocks.[13] In water, CO2 is dissolved as a "carbonic acid," which may be combined with dissolved calcium to form solid calcium carbonate (limestone). Both precipitation and solution are influenced by the bacteria
and plant roots in soils, where they improve gaseous
circulation, or in coral reefs, where calcium carbonate is deposited as a
solid on the sea floor. Calcium carbonate can also be washed from continents to the sea
where it is used by living organisms to manufacture carbonaceous tests and shells. Once dead, the
living organisms' shells fall to
the bottom of the oceans where they generate deposits of chalk and limestone. Part of the organisms with carboneous
shells are the coccolithophores (algae), which also happen to participate in the formation of clouds.
When they die, they release a sulfurous gas (DMS), (CH3)2S, which act as particles on which water vapor condenses to make clouds.[14]

Lovelock sees this as one of the complex processes that
maintain conditions suitable
for life. The volcanoes produce CO2 in the atmosphere, CO2 participates in rock weathering as carbonic
acid, itself accelerated by temperature and soil life, the dissolved CO2 is then used by the algae and released on the ocean floor. CO2 excess can be compensated by an increase of coccolithophoride life,
increasing the amount of CO2 locked in the ocean floor. Coccolithophorides increase
the cloud cover, hence control the surface temperature, help
cool the whole planet and
favor precipitations which are necessary for terrestrial plants. For Lovelock and other Gaia scientists like Stephan Harding, coccolithophorides are one
stage in a regulatory feedback loop. Lately the atmospheric
CO2 concentration has
increased and there is some evidence that concentrations
of ocean algal blooms are also increasing[citation needed].

[edit] Controversial concepts
Lovelock, especially in his older texts, has often indulged in language that has later caused fiery debates. For instance
many attacked his statement in the first paragraph of his first Gaia book (1979), that "the quest for
Gaia is an attempt to find the largest living creature on Earth."

Lynn Margulis, the coauthor of Gaia hypotheses, is more
careful to avoid controversial figures of speech than is Lovelock. In 1979 she wrote,
in particular, that
only homeorhetic and not homeostatic balances are involved: that is, the
composition of Earth's atmosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere are regulated around "set points"
as in homeostasis, but those
set points change with time.
Also she wrote that there is no special tendency of biospheres
to preserve their current inhabitants, and certainly not
to make them comfortable. Accordingly, the Earth is not a living organism which can live or die all at once, but rather a kind of community of trust which can exist at many discrete levels of integration.
But this is true of all
multicellular organisms; not all cells in the body die instantaneously, nor are homeostatic "set points"
constant through the life of an organism.

[edit] Critical analysis

[edit] Basis
This theory is based on the
idea that the biomass self-regulates the conditions on the planet to make its physical environment (in particular temperature and chemistry of the atmosphere)
on the planet more hospitable
to the species which constitute its "life". The Gaia Hypothesis proper defined this "hospitality" as a
full homeostasis. A model that is often used to illustrate the original Gaia Hypothesis is the so-called Daisyworld simulation.

Whether this sort of system is present on Earth is still open to debate. Some relatively simple homeostatic mechanisms are generally accepted. For
example, when atmospheric carbon dioxide levels rise, the biomass of photosynthetic organisms increases and thus removes
more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, but the extent to which these mechanisms
stabilize and modify the Earth's overall climate are not yet
known. Less clear is the reason why such traits evolve in a system in order to produce such effects. Lovelock accepts a process of systemic Darwinian evolution for such mechanisms, creatures that
evolve that improve their environment for their survival
will do better than those which damage their environment. But many Darwinists have difficulty accepting such mechanisms
can exist.[15]

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