The Gaia hypothesis claims that organisms have transformed the entire Earth and maintain it in a state very different than it would have without organisms. "Gaia" is the name of an ancient Greek Earth goddess and is intended by the scientists who defend the hypothesis as an image, not referring to the Earth as a literal organism or person. Biologist Lewis Thomas proposed the concept that the Earth was like a cell in his 1984 book Lives of a Cell. However, Thomas's imagery resulted in no program of scientific investigation. The scientific predictions based upon the Gaia hypothesis began with the work of atmospheric scientist James Lovelock. Its principal proponent within the world of biological and evolutionary science is evolutionary biologist Lynn Margulis.

The Gaia hypothesis is sometimes worded as "The Earth is alive," but this is not correct. The scientists who defend the Gaia hypothesis claim not that the Earth is an organism but that the atmosphere and water of the Earth are a nonliving part of the Earth's living system of interacting organisms the same way that a shell is a nonliving part of a mollusk. The Gaia hypothesis states that organisms transform the Earth in a way that has resulted in a regulation of the temperature and chemical composition of the Earth.

Biological activities of organisms have caused the Earth to be very different from other planets and maintain it in a chemically unstable condition. Thus, even without visiting a distant planet, observers should be able to determine whether life exists on the planet. If all of its atmospheric components (which can be studied by analyzing the light that they reflect) are in equilibrium, the planet is either lifeless or nearly so. Life creates chemical and physical disequilibrium which can be visible from millions of miles away. This was the basis on which James Lovelock predicted that no life would be found on Mars, a prediction that is either entirely or very nearly accurate . . .

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