Lynn Margulis
A prominent evolutionary theorist who championed the endosymbiotic theory, explaining the origin of eukaryotic cells.
Most quoted
"Science is not about control. It is about cultivating a perpetual condition of wonder in the face of something that forever grows one step richer and subtler than our latest theory about it."
— from Essay
"Symbiosis is the driving force of evolution. It is the process by which different organisms come together to form new, more complex systems."
"Science is not just a collection of facts, but a way of understanding the world. It is a process of inquiry, discovery, and exploration."
All quotes by Lynn Margulis (395)
The merger of lineages is more important than the splitting of lineages in evolution.
The chloroplast is a cyanobacterium that forgot how to live on its own.
Our arrogance as a species is our belief that we are the ultimate product of evolution.
The boundary between 'organism' and 'environment' is porous and constantly negotiated.
Science progresses by funerals.
The idea of the 'tree of life' is more like a web, or a tangled bank.
We are all, literally, descended from bacteria.
The eukaryotic cell was the first major merger and acquisition in the history of life.
Without symbiosis, life on Earth would be a boring place of bacteria and not much else.
The Gaia hypothesis is not about the Earth being a single organism, but a self-regulating system.
The drive to live in close association, and to synthesize, is a fundamental property of life.
Mutation is a minor source of evolutionary novelty. The major source is symbiosis.
The human genome is a mosaic of genes from many different ancestral sources, including viruses.
Biology is the most exciting and important science because it is the story of us.
The next major evolutionary transition will be when humanity realizes it is part of the planetary system, not its master.
Contemporaries of Lynn Margulis
Other Biologys born within 50 years of Lynn Margulis (1938–2011).