Product Description

James Lovelock tells the fascinating story of his life as an independent scientist and how he came to develop his inventions and theories. He has filed more than 50 patents, including one for the electron capture detector that was important in the development of environmental awareness, in connection with both the detection of pesticide residues in the environment and the discovery of the global distribution of CFCs. He also tells us about the work he has done for organizations such as NASA, the Ministry of Defence, The Marine Biological Association, and many companies such as Shell and Hewlett Packard. From his childhood days in east London to a job as a lab assistant - his first crucial steps to becoming a scientist, from chemistry at Manchester University to the Medical Research Council during World War II, his voyage to the Arctic, taking his family to America, returning to England and fighting to save the ozone layer, his quest for gaia, then into the nineties and a stream of awards, including a CBE from the Queen. James Lovelock has led a fulfilling life and has been widely recognized by the international scientific community.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #197922 in Books
• Published on: 2001-09-13
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
James Lovelock is the British scientist who gave birth to the concept of Gaia--the idea that "...the Earth regulates its climate and composition..." that neither "...we, or any living thing, [can] evolve without changing the state of the Earth". But as we find in Homage to Gaia: the Life of an Independent Scientist, there is much more to James Lovelock. His life has been more like that of the pioneer natural philosophers of the Renaissance who studied "science" before the word "scientist" was invented in the 19th century. As we discover in this fascinating autobiography, Lovelock learned the nuts and bolts of his science in a very old-fashioned way by what he calls "the long apprenticeship". On leaving school he had, like many bright but poor youths in Britain until the 1950s, to start work as an apprentice chemical analyst in London and study in the evenings at Birkbeck College. For any would-be scientist Lovelock's early career is an object lesson in application, persistence and inspiration. He managed to work his way into a remarkable variety of scientific research posts in chemistry, medicine and space science in both Britain and America. Along the way he invented the electron capture detector, which revolutionised the study of environmental chemistry and discovered that CFCs are accumulating in the Earth's atmosphere and damaging the ozone layer. And then there is Gaia, "...part of science...not an alternative to religion but a complement", according to Lovelock. Much of Lovelock's work has been carried out independently of universities, research institutes or business organisations, financed by the success of his inventions. His story of the struggle to make ends meet, to develop new ideas and to try to come to terms with what it means to be a responsible "child" of Earth, Gaia is essential if at times uncomfortable reading for anyone interested in the interaction between science and the environment. Be prepared to have your preconceptions of Lovelock shaken up. --Douglas Palmer

About the Author
James Lovelock is an independent scientist, inventor, and author. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1974 and in 1975 received the Tswett Medal for Chromatography. In 1988 he was a recipient of the Norbert Gerbier Prize of the World Meteorological Organization, and in 1990 was awarded the first Amsterdam Prize for the Environment by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Further awards include the Nonino Prize and the Volvo Environment Prize in 1996, and
Japan's Blue Planet prize in 1997. Her Majesty the Queen made him a CBE in 1990. One of his inventions is the electron capture detector, which was important in the development of environmental awareness. It revealed for the first time the ubiquitous distribution of pesticide residues. He co-operated with NASA and some of his inventions were adopted in their programme of planetory explanation.

Customer Reviews

An unusually frank, warm and compassionate science memoir
Whilst talking to a colleague a few days ago, I mentioned that I had just read the autobiography of James Lovelock. He looked blank. "James Lovelock", I said, "the originator of the Gaia hypothesis? The idea that the processes of life maintain the earth in homeostatic balance?" He shook his head.

My colleague is a microbiologist and I was at first surprised that he had never heard of Lovelock or Gaia. After a little thought, I realised that the topic is probably not taught in many university microbiology courses. Lovelock is, after all, widely regarded as a maverick independent scientist, whose ideas have been variously vilified by evolutionary biologists (notably Richard Dawkins) and adopted as religion by the New Age environmental movement. However, Lovelock has always been something of a personal hero to me, so I began the story of his life with great anticipation.

I wasn't disappointed. Over the course of twelve chapters, Lovelock takes us through his early life and education and what he calls his "scientific apprenticeship", largely spent working for the Medical Research Council over some twenty years. He then describes his first steps towards an independent scientific career as an inventor and consultant, facilitated largely by his invention of the electron capture device (ECD), an instrument capable of detecting almost unimaginably tiny quantities of molecules in air and water samples. This leads to a spirited discussion of the "Ozone war" in the early 1970s, in which Lovelock became embroiled as a consultant for companies manufacturing CFCs. The Gaia hypothesis, Lovelock's best known idea, is discussed quite briefly in Chapter 9, where Lovelock tells us how the ideacame to him whilst working for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and of the fight to gain credibility for Gaia with the scientific establishment. The latter part of the book is the most personal, where Lovelock describes the day to day practice of independent science, his struggles with serious medical problems in later life and his new-found happiness with his second wife, whom he met at the age of almost 70.

On the surface, Lovelock appears as a bundle of contradictions. A self-professed recluse who lives in an isolated corner of rural England, yet widely travelled with a large circle of friends and admirers. A doyen of New Age environmentalists, yet intensely critical of many environmental organisations. A meticulous, methodical and practical scientist, yet shunned and ridiculed by the science establishment. However, Lovelock comes across as a man of great integrity and gentle courage, who sees no such contradictions in himself. What sets this science autobiography apart is its very personal, frank and warm style. It is clearly not the work of a ghost writer-Lovelock's writing hops about with little regard for the precise timeframe of events (as he admits cheerfully towards the end of the book). There are moments of great humour, as when he describes his experiences with the culture and beaurocracy of the United States, and many honest, open and moving moments, such as his accounts of major surgery undergone in the 1980s or the decline and death of his first wife through multiple sclerosis.

In the preface to the book, Lovelock writes "Some who read this book might think it old fashioned ,and if they do, I ask them to note that I was born in 1919, when English society was still conditioned by the code of the gentleman, a culture which valued good manners, playing by the rules, admiring the good loser and above all taking full responsibility for mistakes." He needn't have worried. He has lead a more extraordinary life than most of us can ever hope for and his personal account of it is a joy to read from start to finish.

An extraordinary man...a frustrating book
That Lovelock is an extraordinary man shouldnt need mentioning: as an independent scientist, inventor and the creator fo the gaia hypothesis, I was excited to pick this up and read about his life. The early chapters recount his early years in S london and his eduction as a scientist during the war- an illuminating insight into a time when being a scientist was a profession of respect whose work was regarded as important for the nation and often quite dangerous. Early days with setting himself up as an independent and trips to NASA are also interesting and amke for fascinating reading. His honesty and candour shines through the entire book...but throughout i got the feeling something ws missing.

Gaia itself (or should i say herself), despite a huge build up is glossed over very quickly. the rest of the book then becomes a list of awards he was honoured to receive and interesting people he met and how charmed he was by them. Audaciously he also recounts his passionate liasions with his current wife while his first wife was dying from MS.

Then it struck me: lovelock, ever so careful when analysing the planet, never analyses himself. He describes events that happen to him, explains how he reacts and then moves on. There is a stunning lack of self awareness. For someone who exhorts the importance of having space to think for hours and days on end, he never expands on his thinking process. What was going through his head while his wife was degenerating from MS? he describes it as distressing but no more. What was he thinking when he began sleeping with another woman? As a socialist, how does he explain his admiration for Margaret Thatcher? Most irritating for me, he describes some of the events and conversation that led to Gaia, but glosses over the writing of his first Gaia book in less than a paragraph. What was the creative process that led him to take so many ideas and congeal them into one holistic concept?

I found this a frustrating experience- having read a couple of the Gaia texts i wanted to know a lot more but i feel the autobiog didn't really scratch the surface. Lovelock comes across as slightly arrogant and even superficial... i guess I'll have to wait for the unauthorised biography.

A marvellous brilliant and honest book.
If you like autobiographies by scientists this is for you. Here is a man - an independant scientist - [will there ever be his like again?] who not only comes up with one of the great ideas of the 20th C i.e. Gaia but also a great chemistry discovery i.e. a detector device used in GLC analysis. And a number of other briliant ideas and discoveries any one of which most scientists would be grateful for. In this book you will find how a great scientist works, thinks and feels. Warts and all. I ask this question: 'Why has such a great original thinker not been given The Nobel Prize'? Others have cashed in on his discoveries. Read it - I'd give it 6 stars if I could!