Chapter 44
Daisyworld
One ring to rule them all, one ring to bind them, One ring to
bring them all, and in the darkness bind them.
(J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Part 1,
Ballantine Books, NY 1965)
44.1 Daisyworld Model
During the late 1960s and early 1970s, James Lovelock, an independent inventor
and scientist, and Lynn Margulis, a professor at Boston University, worked with the
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory to develop a means to detect life on Mars. It was
noted in the progress of this work that one striking property of the Earth is that its
atmosphere is far from chemical equilibrium since the biota use it as a reservoir for
nutrients and waste products. In other words, the atmosphere is, in the steady state,
not derived of ordinary chemistry and physics. In fact, it is derived of life.
Conventional thought is that the Earth and the life upon it evolved separately by
different mechanisms. The evolution of the planet’s surface features and the
atmosphere is a result of chemical and physical processes to which the biota must
adapt to prevent extinction. In some instances, it is very clear that life has had a
significant effect on the environment, yet these feedbacks are regarded as accidental. Lovelock has criticized this view for not adequately describing the sophisticated
interaction between life and its environment and has developed his own theory
known as the Gaia Hypothesis.
The Gaia Hypothesis states quite simply that “the Earth is homeostatic, with the
biota actively seeking to keep the environment optimal for life” [1]. Lovelock
suggests that life has the capacity to regulate the environment of the Earth in
A save-disabled version of STELLA and the computer models of this book are available at
www.iseesystems.com/modelingdynamicbiologicalsystems.
B. Hannon and M. Ruth, Modeling Dynamic Biological Systems,
Modeling Dynamic Systems, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-05615-9_44,
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014
411
Daisyworld
One ring to rule them all, one ring to bind them, One ring to
bring them all, and in the darkness bind them.
(J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Part 1,
Ballantine Books, NY 1965)
44.1 Daisyworld Model
During the late 1960s and early 1970s, James Lovelock, an independent inventor
and scientist, and Lynn Margulis, a professor at Boston University, worked with the
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory to develop a means to detect life on Mars. It was
noted in the progress of this work that one striking property of the Earth is that its
atmosphere is far from chemical equilibrium since the biota use it as a reservoir for
nutrients and waste products. In other words, the atmosphere is, in the steady state,
not derived of ordinary chemistry and physics. In fact, it is derived of life.
Conventional thought is that the Earth and the life upon it evolved separately by
different mechanisms. The evolution of the planet’s surface features and the
atmosphere is a result of chemical and physical processes to which the biota must
adapt to prevent extinction. In some instances, it is very clear that life has had a
significant effect on the environment, yet these feedbacks are regarded as accidental. Lovelock has criticized this view for not adequately describing the sophisticated
interaction between life and its environment and has developed his own theory
known as the Gaia Hypothesis.
The Gaia Hypothesis states quite simply that “the Earth is homeostatic, with the
biota actively seeking to keep the environment optimal for life” [1]. Lovelock
suggests that life has the capacity to regulate the environment of the Earth in
A save-disabled version of STELLA and the computer models of this book are available at
www.iseesystems.com/modelingdynamicbiologicalsystems.
B. Hannon and M. Ruth, Modeling Dynamic Biological Systems,
Modeling Dynamic Systems, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-05615-9_44,
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014
411