Gaia - Who is the boss here

The ancient Greeks had a deity of the Earth are called Gaia.

Also, the ancients often finds the idea of ​​earth as a living being. The scientist circles, the idea was first put forward the Scottish scientist James Hutton on the meeting of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1785th year. He stated that the Earth is supernatural being and stressed that its physiology to be studied, and the circulation of nutrients in soil and water flows considered bloodstream. His ideas are forgotten or discarded, however, although it remained the father of geology. Jevgraf Maksimovic Korolenko, Ukrainian self-taught scientist from the 19th century, argued that the country will be affected and their claims to a younger cousin of Vladimir Vernadskij that in 1911. The developed concept of the biosphere, and defined it as an area inhabited by the Earth's crust transformers that convert radiation from space to terrestrial energy efficient.

Young scientist James Lovelock was not familiar with the works of these scholars, but was living in a natural landscape or a room which is adjoining the old mill intuitively felt the earth as a living being. A first of a series of events that will lead to the formulation of the Gaia hypothesis happened 1961st year. It was the invitation of the director of NASA's space flight department for the preparation of the first experiments on the moon. James Lovelock began working on the lunar probe at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory Laboratory in California, where it quickly moved to work creating a sensitive instrument to analyze the planet's surface and atmosphere. The foundation of his education were medicine and biology, so he was interested in experiments that would be discovered life on other planets. Together with Diana Hitchock, who was at NASA and worked on a logical assessment of the sustainability of the experiment, the proposed analysis of the atmosphere as the most reliable way to detect life on the planet. His premise was simple - the impact of life as a global phenomenon changing the chemical composition of the atmosphere, which is then visible and significantly different from the lifeless atmosphere of the planet. Lovelock argued that life on a planet can only be global, not local.

In 1960's -these are made ​​the first analysis of the Martian atmosphere using a telescope with infrared rays. Have shown that the chemical composition of Martian atmosphere near chemical equilibrium, with the largest share of carbon dioxide emissions of about 95%. For Lovelock was the conclusive proof that life as a global phenomenon does not exist on Mars. All subsequent studies that have shown. But they are thinking Lovelock took a completely different direction. As to his view of the universe and gave a new view of the Earth. It was the beginning of the Gaia hypothesis. Lovelock basic idea is that the system of living beings and their planet (for short - Gaia) must be able to maintain a climate and chemical conditions. In other words, the overall system of life on the planet maintains the delicate chemical balance (actually - the imbalance. right balance government ma dead Mars) and continuously adjusted.