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Is Earth alive? Put more rigorously, is the biosphere a self- sustaining meta-organism? This is the essence of Gaia theory: if the biosphere really is a single coherent system, then it must have something like a physiology. It must have systems and processes that perform living functions. OK, then, what systems, what processes, what functions? Gaia's Body is Tyler Volk's answer to this question. In this book, he describes the environment that enables the biosphere to exist; various ways of looking at its "anatomy" and "physiology," the major biogeographical regions such as rainforests, deserts, and tundra; the major substances the biosphere is made of; and the chemical cycles that keep it in balance. He then looks at the question of whether there are any long-term trends in earth's evolution--is Gaia growing colder? more complex?--and examines the role of humanity in Gaia's past and future. Adherents and skeptics both have often been concerned that Gaia theory contains too much goddess and too few testable hypotheses. This is the book that describes, for scientists, students, and lay readers alike, the theory's firm basis in science.

Cosmology --- General ecology and biosociology --- Solar system --- Gaia hypothesis. --- Gaia hypothesis --- Gaia concept --- Gaia principle --- Gaia theory --- Gaian hypothesis --- Living earth theory --- Ecology --- Geobiology --- Biosphere --- Philosophy --- Earth sciences. --- Geoecology. --- Environmental geology. --- Nature conservation. --- Ecology . --- Earth Sciences, general. --- Geoecology/Natural Processes. --- Nature Conservation. --- Ecology. --- Balance of nature --- Biology --- Bionomics --- Ecological processes --- Ecological science --- Ecological sciences --- Environment --- Environmental biology --- Oecology --- Environmental sciences --- Population biology --- Conservation of nature --- Nature --- Nature protection --- Protection of nature --- Conservation of natural resources --- Applied ecology --- Conservation biology --- Endangered ecosystems --- Natural areas --- Geoecology --- Environmental protection --- Physical geology --- Geosciences --- Physical sciences --- Conservation

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Our world is nested, both physically and socially, and at each level we find innovations that are necessary for the next. Consider: atoms combine to form molecules, molecules combine to form single-celled organisms; when people come together, they build societies. Physics has gone far in mapping the basic mechanics of the simplest things and the dynamics of the overall nesting, as have biology and the social sciences for their fields. But what can we say about this beautifully complex whole? How does one stage shape another, and what can we learn about human existence through understanding an enlarged field of creation and being?In Quarks to Culture, Tyler Volk answers these questions, revealing how a universal natural rhythm-building from smaller things into larger, more complex things-resulted in a grand sequence of twelve fundamental levels across the realms of physics, biology, and culture. He introduces the key concept of "combogenesis," the building-up from combination and integration to produce new things with innovative relations. He explores common themes in how physics and chemistry led to biological evolution, and biological evolution to cultural evolution. Volk also provides insights into linkages across the sciences and fields of scholarship, and presents an exciting synthesis of ideas along a sequence of things and relations, from physical to living to cultural. The resulting inclusive natural philosophy brings clarity to our place in the world, offering a roadmap for those who seek to understand big history and wrestle with questions of how we came to be.

Life --- Abiogenesis --- Biogenesis --- Germ theory --- Heterogenesis --- Life, Origin of --- Life (Biology) --- Origin of life --- Plasmogeny --- Plasmogony --- Evolution (Biology) --- Exobiology --- Spontaneous generation --- Origin. --- Origin

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Answering the question "What is death ?" by focusing on the individual is blinkered. It restricts attention to a narrow zone around the individual body of a creature. Instead, how expansive is the answer we receive when we look at the context of death within the biosphere. Death now is tied to all of life, via the atmosphere and ocean. Death supports the awesome biological enterprise of making abundant the green and squiggly life. Talk about death has headed us straight into a contemplation of life, not only individual life, but big life, life on a global scale. Death and life are neatly dovetailed by the supreme cabinetmaker of evolution. Again, the crucial feature is not the death of any on creature per se, but rather what is done with death. To reach into the meaning of death, we must reach out into the wider context of which death is a part.

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In the interdisciplinary tradition of Buckminster Fuller's work, Gregory Bateson's Mind and Nature, and Fritjof Capra's Tao of Physics, Metapatterns embraces both nature and culture, seeking out the grand-scale patterns that help explain the functioning of our universe.

Metacognition. --- Thought and thinking.