Friday, November 25, 2011

Lynn Margulis, R.I.P.

One of the giants of biology, and one of the most prominent women in science, has died. Biologist Lynn Margulis was 73. She developed the initially-ridiculed theory of symbiogenesis - describing how variations could develop out of the sharing of genes with microorganisms inside a host body - which is now accepted as a major contributor to evolution. I've read some of Margulis' work for general audiences,  and she comes through as a brilliant intellect who could also explain things in a way a non-biologist could understand.  ( I shoiuld mention Margulis later doubted the HIV-AIDS link and rejected some key tenets of what Darwin said about how evolution worked, but her reputation was assured by her work on how evolution DID work).


. http://www.astrobio.net/index.php?option=com_retrospection&task=detail&id=4364

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