The scientific mission of our laboratory is the pursuit of Darwinian "natural history" enlightened by nearly two centuries of scientific insight: Vernadskyan, Lovelockian and molecular biological. Our "object of study" is evolution, not limited to biology but rather "environmental evolution". We track the changes through time of the surface of the "living Earth from space". We try to reconstruct Earth history from clues taken to be representational. Our science seamlessly involves microbiology, cell biology, genetics, ecology, "soft rock"-geology (paleontology, sedimentation and stratigraphy), astronomy, astrobiology, atmospheric sciences, metabolic organic and biochemistry.

We notice that our friends, colleagues and especially our fellow scientists begin to share our vision. We welcome, in Ludwik Fleck's terms (Genesis and development of a scientific fact, U Chicago Press, 1989), a change in "thought-style" of the scientific "thought-collective" as we, along with Jim Lovelock, promote a rigorous holistic science. We reiterate T. Dobzhansky's admonition that "nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution" and expand it: nothing at all makes sense except in the light of its history.

Our Rigorous and Holistic Approach to Environmental Evolution

The ancient Greek poet, Homer, on Gaia

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Bust of Homer (British Museum, London)

Updated 11/03/2009