Hoffmann Roald - Dazzle gradually: reflections on the nature of nature

Praise forDazzle Gradually

This is a ripsnorting intellectual barnstorm of a book, a sort of chimeric hybrid of mental genes from Dorion Sagan, his genius mother Lynn Margulis, and his dead father Carl Sagansurely one of the smartest families on the planet. The book pulls into its mitochondrial group grope such luminaries as Roald Hoffmann, James Lovelock, Ricardo Guerrero, and Eric Schneiderall bona fide members of Americas intellectual aristocracy. The result is a remarkably coherent and blazingly original proposal for the next grand narrative of our civilization (now that we have pretty much burned out the Cartesian one).

Frederick Turner, author of Natural Classicism and The Culture of Hope

Brilliant and fascinating, Dazzle Gradually unrolls for us the scroll of life on Earth. These essays show us the intricate complexities of microbes, an atmosphere that performs self-maintenance, our own minds. Margulis and Sagan do not blink at the big questions or hard answers, and their writing is lively, precise, entertaining, and provocative; their passion for science everywhere evident and persuasive. Anyone who has ever wondered where we came from, who we are, and where we may be headed will delight in this extraordinarily exciting book.

Kelly Cherry, author of Hazard and Prospect: New and Selected Poems

Dazzle Gradually is like an air-raid siren, calling for science to reinvent itself for the 21st century; to look beyond the categorization and characterization of things and the traditional view of nature into a highly networked and involved view. In particular, it advises us to descend from our throne of delusion and realize that humanity (with all its technological and cultural trappings), is intimately and inextricably immersed in this grand system along with the protoctists and bacteria, plants and animals, the living world that surrounds us. Our very identityour minds and soulsare a result of the evolving experiment we call nature. Dazzle Gradually is like opening the door to a vast and brilliant garden, which slowly assimilates us as we become part of natures teaming, humming, growing, and unendingly magical realm.

Stephen Miles Uzzo, Ph.D., New York Hall of Science

Biological phenomena are usually viewed in terms of plants and animals. Margulis and Sagan look at them from their extremes: Gaiathe living system of the Earth as a wholeand bacteria. Both Gaia and bacteria dazzle the reader accustomed to conventional fare. It is re-viewing of this kind that paves the way for real advance in science.

John B. Cobb, Jr., Professor Emeritus, Claremont School of Theology

Dazzle Gradually sparkles with insight and wit as it delves into a host of topics in biology and ecology, linking them in new ways that highlight scientific understanding and speculation at their enjoyable best.

Donald Goldsmith, co-author of The Search for Life in the Universe

In Dazzle Gradually, Margulis and Sagan effectively tap into the cultural waveform through a series of original science essays and provocative ideas to reveal why we are living in an open social networked world, and why survival of the fittest no longer means fit to kill, but fitting in with the rest of life. Simply said, Darwin is left in the dust.

Mary McGuinness, Co-Director, Sputnik Observatory

Dazzle Gradually invites the reader to push aside the traditional categorization of Earths biota as an interdependent collective of discrete, membrane-bound organisms and look at it instead as a semi-continuous spectrum of interactive bacterial nations. Like a war correspondents gritty reports from the dangerous frontiers of evolutionary biology, Margulis latest reassessments once again threaten to alter our perspective, not only on the life that immediately surrounds and invests us, but on the origin and significance of biological existence within our hydrogen-mediated, thermodynamic cosmos. Cushioned by Sagans classical allusions and philosophical underpinning this is a book that will seduce, nourish and inspire hungry readers who already know a little of these things.

Reg Morrison, author of The Spirit in the Gene

Dazzle
Gradually

Dazzle

Gradually

REFLECTIONS ON
THE NATURE OF NATURE

LYNN MARGULIS AND DORION SAGAN

CHELSEA GREEN PUBLISHING
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION, VERMONT

scientific knowledge through enchantment
Sciencewriters Books is an imprint of Chelsea Green Publishing. Founded and codirected by Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan, Sciencewriters is an educational partnership devoted to advancing science through enchantment in the form of the finest possible books, videos, and other media.

Copyright 2007 by Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form by any means without permission in writing from the publisher.

Project Manager: Emily Foote
Copy Editor: Nancy Ringer
Proofreader: Susan Barnett
Sciencewriters Editorial Associate: Dianne Bilyak
Designer: Peter Holm, Sterling Hill Productions

Printed in the United States of America
First printing, August 2007
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Our Commitment to Green Publishing
Chelsea Green sees publishing as a tool for cultural change and ecological stewardship. We strive to align our book manufacturing practices with our editorial mission and to reduce the impact of our business enterprise on the environment. We print our books and catalogs on chlorine-free recycled paper, using soy-based inks whenever possible. This book may cost slightly more because we use recycled paper, and we hope youll agree that its worth it. Chelsea Green is a member of the Green Press Initiative (www.greenpressinitiative.org), a nonprofit coalition of publishers, manufacturers, and authors working to protect the worlds endangered forests and conserve natural resources.

Dazzle Gradually was printed on Natures Natural, a 50-percent post-consumer-waste recycled, old-growth-forestfree paper supplied by Thomson-Shore.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Margulis, Lynn, 1938
Dazzle gradually : reflections on the nature of nature / Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
eBook ISBN: 978-1-603581-36-3
1. SciencePhilosophy. 2. Evolution (Biology) 3.MicroorganismsEvolution. 4. Sex (Biology) 5. Gaia hypothesis. 6.Symbiosis. 7. Sagan, Carl, 19341996Influence. I. Sagan, Dorion, 1959 II. Title.
Q175.M3626 2007
501dc22

2007021966

Chelsea Green Publishing Company Post Office Box 428
White River Junction,VT 05001 (802) 295-6300
www.chelseagreen.com

A listing of the original places of publication for the essays is .

Tell all the truth but tell it slant
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truths superb surprise
As Lightning to the Children eased by explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind
EMILY DICKINSON
18301886
Amherst, Massachusetts

To the impersonal principle of
freedom of thought

contents

by Roald Hoffmann

Lynn Margulis

Dorion Sagan

Dorion Sagan and Lynn Margulis

Lynn Margulis

Lynn Margulis