The Many Lives of James Lovelock
Science, Secrets and Gaia Theory
Published on 12. September 2024
Book
Hardback
320 pages
978-1-80530-287-2 (ISBN)
Description
LONGLISTED FOR THE HISTORICAL WRITERS' ASSOCIATION NON-FICTION CROWN AWARD
A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK
'Splendid' GUARDIAN
'Utterly fascinating' ROBERT MACFARLANE
'A scientific life as dissonant as it was remarkable' FINANCIAL TIMES
Based on over eighty hours of interviews with Lovelock and unprecedented access to his personal papers and scientific archive, Jonathan Watts has written a definitive and revelatory biography of a fascinating, sometimes contradictory man.
James Lovelock is best known as the father of Gaia Theory, the idea that life on Earth is a self-sustaining system in which organisms interact with their environments to maintain a habitable ecosystem.
Lovelock's life was a chronicle of twentieth-century science, and somehow he seemed to have a hand in much of it. During the Second World War he worked at the National Medical Research Institute, where his life-long interest in chemical tracing began. In the 1960s he worked at NASA. He worked for MI5 and MI6 during the Cold War. He was a science advisor to the oil giant Shell, who he warned as early as 1966 that fossil fuels were causing serious harm to the environment. He invented the technology that found the hole in the Ozone layer. And all of this shaped Gaia Theory - a theory that could not have been developed without the collaboration of two important women in his life.
Drawing together the many influences which shaped his life and thinking, The Many Lives of James Lovelock is a unique biography of one of the most fascinating scientists of the modern age.
A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK
'Splendid' GUARDIAN
'Utterly fascinating' ROBERT MACFARLANE
'A scientific life as dissonant as it was remarkable' FINANCIAL TIMES
Based on over eighty hours of interviews with Lovelock and unprecedented access to his personal papers and scientific archive, Jonathan Watts has written a definitive and revelatory biography of a fascinating, sometimes contradictory man.
James Lovelock is best known as the father of Gaia Theory, the idea that life on Earth is a self-sustaining system in which organisms interact with their environments to maintain a habitable ecosystem.
Lovelock's life was a chronicle of twentieth-century science, and somehow he seemed to have a hand in much of it. During the Second World War he worked at the National Medical Research Institute, where his life-long interest in chemical tracing began. In the 1960s he worked at NASA. He worked for MI5 and MI6 during the Cold War. He was a science advisor to the oil giant Shell, who he warned as early as 1966 that fossil fuels were causing serious harm to the environment. He invented the technology that found the hole in the Ozone layer. And all of this shaped Gaia Theory - a theory that could not have been developed without the collaboration of two important women in his life.
Drawing together the many influences which shaped his life and thinking, The Many Lives of James Lovelock is a unique biography of one of the most fascinating scientists of the modern age.
Reviews / Votes
This splendid, balanced biography testifies to the pros and cons of scientific mavericks * * Guardian * * A scientific life as dissonant as it was remarkable. Watts [ . . . ] nimbly parses the brilliance and flaws of a man whose interdisciplinary interests spanned vast areas of twentieth-century research * * Financial Times * * Utterly fascinating - a beautifully braided account of the life of a maverick, prophetic genius. Jonathan Watts has turned Lovelock's greatest idea into literary form, giving us a Gaian biography in which Lovelock's discoveries are understood as always occurring in relation - to people, to places and to the Earth itself -- ROBERT MACFARLANE In this comprehensive biography, Jonathan Watts presents a well-researched chronicle of a complicated life, marked by professional success, controversy and some personal failings. Watts tells Lovelock's story with admiration and compassion, but also with an honesty that embeds both success and failure in the complexities of being gifted, and human * * Times Literary Supplement * * In his tender and searching new biography of Lovelock, based on eighty hours of interviews with his subject, Jonathan Watts, global environment editor at the Guardian, embraces this multiplicity. [ . . . ] If you want a rounded sense of the man, this book provides one beautifully * * Economist * * An exploration of James Lovelock's career, scientific work and personal life [that] doesn't pull its punches . . . Despite covering more than a century's worth of material, Watts' biography is a zingy read, keeping an energetic pace without feeling superficial. Those interested in the environment, the history of science and the human drama behind scientific discoveries will all enjoy the ride * * Nature * * The essential guide to one of our era's most important thinkers. Lovelock's personal and intellectual journey, as told by Watts, is thrilling -- BEN RAWLENCE A superbly written, beautifully balanced insight into one of the most fascinating minds (and lives) of the twentieth century. By carefully and, at times humorously, drawing out the many colours of Lovelock's thought and life story, we get a riveting insight into some of the forces that have shaped our world today. In so doing, the biography becomes a significant contribution to ecological thought in its own right -- MELANIE CHALLENGER Jonathan Watts' meticulously researched episodes of Jim's life combine to reveal the person and luminary. Just as a master portrait records much more than a visual appearance, Jim emerges like a verbal hologram from the text. For those of us who sorely miss him as a friend and colleague, it's a great comfort to know that he lives on in these pages -- PROFESSOR CHRIS RAPLEY, UCL and former Director of the Science Museum) A wonderful book. It captures the friend and mentor I knew. It also taught me a few things I didn't know about him -- TIM LENTON, Professor of Earth System Science at Exeter UniversityMore details
Edition
Main
Language
English
Place of publication
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
Product notice
With dust jacket
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 163 mm
Thickness: 35 mm
Weight
545 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-80530-287-2 (9781805302872)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Jonathan Watts is a journalist based in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil. He is global environment editor at the Guardian and founder of the Rainforest Journalism Fund and the Amazon-centred news website sumauma.com. He has won numerous environmental and science journalism awards and is the author of When a Billion Chinese Jump: How China Will Save the World - or Destroy It.
Twitter @jonathanwatts
Twitter @jonathanwatts