Lynn Margulis is Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She is a prolific author, writing mostly about the early stages of life on Earth, particularly with regard to microbial evolution and its contribution to organelle heredity in multicellular organisms. Throughout her long career she has never ceased to challenge the views of the scientific establishment of the day, doggedly persuing every avenue of enquiry and bringing common sense thinking (invariably backed up by good, solid scientific investigation) to a number of controversial fields of study.

She is probably best known for her theory of serial endosymbiosis -- the process of successive fusion of genomes through the formation of countless, novel symbiotic consortia of microbial organisms. Since its formulation over 40 years ago, this theory has always threatened the central tenet of neo-Darwinism -- that genome alteration occurs principally through random mutation -- and getting it accepted has been a long, up-hill struggle. Lesser mortals would probably have given up trying long ago. Professor Margulis has also worked for many years on the development of a 5-kingdom taxomony which has eventually been accepted as a more appropriate replacement for the previously long established (but hopelessly inadequate) division of all living things into just plants and animals. One cornerstone of that work is the recognition of the place of microbes (bacteria and protoctists) as well as fungae as living kingdoms every bit as distinct as plants and animals, and occupying crucial places in the evolutionary scheme of things.

In addition to fighting the unfashionable microbial corner in life-sciences thinking, Lynn Margulis has also been active at the other end of the scale, contributing to the development of the Gaia concept. Originated by James Lovelock, this posits that the interactions between the Erath's bioshere, hydrosphere, lithosphere and atmosphere act as one vast self-regulating system.

In "The Symbiotic Planet: A New Look At Evolution", the author provides a summary of these areas of her life's work and explains the connecting threads that link them all. Along the way, she provides some interesting asides on both her personal scientific journey and the difficulties involved in overcoming long-established prejudices (both within and outside the scientific community). As such, this book forms a useful introduction to the work of Lynn Margulis.

In spite of its complex and specialist subject matter, the book remains eminently accessible even to the lay reader. For many, this will be a quick and light read, which, whilst uplifting and inspiring in its outlook (and potentially eye-opening in its content) may nevertheless feel to lack substance to those looking for an in-depth treatment. For that, you'll need to turn to other books, mostly by the same author. Her "Early Life: Evolution on the PreCambrian Earth" (written in conjunction with Amherst colleague, Michael Dolan) forms a useful and technically detailed account of current state of thinking on the earliest phases of microbial evolution, whilst "Acquiring Genomes: A Theory of the Origins of the Species" (co-authored with her eldest son, Dorion Sagan) provides an in-depth study of Serial Endosymbiosis Theory. Details of the five-kingdom approach to the taxonomy of living things can be found in "Diversity of Life: The Illustrated Guide to the Five Kingdoms". The definitive text regarding the Gaia Concept remains James Lovelock's "Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth". But if all you want is a quick overview of all of these, this book will do just fine.

I read the original edition of 1998. Although a footnote refers to 1999 in the past tense - but then again, Margulis obviously included other typos, such as when it comes to years, turning 1890 into 1990...

This book with some 125 text pages is a good introduction into a rethinking about how symbiosis (largely on a mircobial level) is much more essential than previously thought. Leading to new concepts about the origin of sexuality and a redesign of taxonomy.

Don't miss this food for thought. However. Celebrate Lynn Margulis for pushing the envelope. That doesn't mean, she will turn out to be 100% correct herself in everything she is suggesting. For example, she is averring that it is a law of nature that energy is lost all the time. That remains controversial. She devotes more pages to her fight "Against Orthodoxy" (the title of an entire 20 page chapter) than to the gaia concept (the final chapter of 16 pages only). Frankly, I ordered the book because I hoped to read primarily about the latter on a scientific basis. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate this book. I complain that its title and overall appearance suggests a more in-depth analysis of the gaia concept, not a content mostly about individual/separated species-symbiosis, taxonomy reform and the battles with the science establishment. If you are interested in gaia, you should probably search for another book, as I will.

Other books on symbiosis with negligible overlap include Liaisons of Life: From Hornworts to Hippos--How the Unassuming Microbe has Driven Evolution, Riddled with Life: Friendly Worms, Ladybug Sex, and the Parasites That Make Us Who We Are and Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life. Especially in the human context read: Good Germs, Bad Germs: Health and Survival in a Bacterial World by a science journalist. Which is also about the history of antibiotic treatments and their failure due to mounting resistance. Microbial Inhabitants of Humans: Their Ecology and Role in Health and Disease is a dry and/but exhaustive textbook. Human-only symbiosis can be found in Mutants: On the Form, Varieties and Errors of the Human Body (conjoined twins in many variations). More on the "fun" side is the coffee table book Human Wildlife: The Life That Lives on Us and the largely more text oriented Parasite Rex : Inside the Bizarre World of Nature's Most Dangerous Creatures.

Margulis is a world class researcher and a scientist who has changed the way we think. However as a summary of her life's work this book makes her seem petty and small. She is dismissive and patronising when she discusses work tha disagrees with her own and often seems to be damning with faint praise. A perfect example is her dismissal of Woess's division of Archaea from Eubacteria. She belittles his division because to her it obscures the importance of the division between eu and pro karyotes (it certainly didn't to me) even though she grudgingly says that it's better than the plant animal dichotomy. Woess's classification is far more reflective of reality than Margulis's, and shows how even for eukaryotes we overestimate the importance of multicellularity as it divides the protozoa which just form one finger in Margulis's classification. There are much better books about symbiosis several of them written by Margulis.

In Lynn Margulis' Symbiotic Planet (A New Look at Evolution), the reader is presented with the author's ideas and theories on evolution in a style that entwines an autobiographical basis into her piece of work as well.
The use of first person throughout the novel personalizes the conversation that the book presents to the reader. Margulis, although only presenting a theory is very unsure and unconfident with her own opinions. She seems to be uncomfortable with presenting her thoughts straight out, and barely attempts to persuade the reader to believe in her theories. When she presents her theories with a very minute attempt to persuade her audience, the book and her ideas become nearly pointless, and bland - for the lack of evidence used to back up the thoughts of the reader.
The book switches back and forth between informational and autobiographical. In the beginning of the book, the small stories the Margulis includes on her history and self-experiences intrigue the reader by adding the attraction that accompanies a story. Yet Margulis takes the story parts of her book too far, and soon her autobiographical accounts become outdated, losing all former interest. Margulis gets caught up in her own life, rather than her theories on life. The stories of the courses she took in college qualify her ability in the subject matter, yet they do nothing to further the purpose and goal of the book. This book comes across as being a book that was written by an author more interested in herself than her theories she was presenting. Only halfway through the book is any relevant information exposed, and even as the reader reaches this point, it quickly rotates back to an autobiographical account on Lynn Margulis.
Margulis presents her readers with fascinating topics that she is well qualified to discuss and propose theories on, yet she fails to effectively present the information. This book would only be of interest to avid fans of Lynn Margulis who wish to learn more on her background, and who thoroughly appreciate her style of writing. Otherwise, Lynn Margulis' Symbiotic Planet (A New Look at Evolution) is not the book for you.

Let's hear it for the bugs-not your creepy-crawlies, but bacteria, the be-all (and possible end-all) of life on Earth, according to Margulis. Here she describes the once radical theory that cells have incorporated bacteria to mutual advantage and uses that as a springboard to summarize a still more radical theory of how species evolve. She calls it serial endosymbiosis theory (SET). It is now conventional wisdom that the energy-producing mitochondria in animal cells were once free-living bacteria. Indeed, they have their own genes-different from nuclear DNA. Margulis provides many examples of fruitful symbioses, including sexual union itself as the merger of sperm and egg cells. According to SET, there are successive steps or mergers that led to multicellular life forms: In steps one and two the oldest bacterial forms-the non-oxygen breathing 'archaebacteria' found in deep ocean vents-merged with swimming bacteria two billion years ago to form the nuclear heart of animal, plant, and fungal cells and provide the cilia for swimming. Later steps introduced a third partner able to breathe oxygen and added the ability to engulf and digest food (phagocytosis). The last step involved engulfing yet another bacterium-but one these various new forms of life could not digest: bright green photosynthetic bacteria. The bone of contention here is the origin of ciliated cells-critical to evolution for their vital role as sperm tails, among other things. Margulis has a theory about their origin, but as they say, more research is needed. Margulis' theory also dictates a change in taxonomy to five kingdoms: bacteria at the base, then 'protoctists' (algae, slimemolds, ciliates) next, and then animals, plants, and fungi. Finally, she defends Lovelock's Gaia theory, which she interprets to mean that enormous interacting ecosystems on Earth achieve homeostasis rather than that the planet is in the hands of some benign Mother Earth. This is vintage Margulis-personal, autobiographical, passionate, argumentative, at times over the top, but full of ideas-at least some of which, in the past, have proved to be right.