Re: paleonet Re: Geobiology

>Certainly most (all?) of geobiology has been pursued as though 
>history does not matter.

I think that this is an artifact of the training of the personnel 
that dominate the field at the moment.  One root of the field is in 
the Gaian community.  Lovelock is a chemist.  Margulis is a cell 
biologist.  A lot of the Gaian stuff is presented in cybernetic 
terms: systems analysis.  I.e., no history, only time.

>Therefore, while I agree with Bill's sentiment, I'd be surprised if 
>geobiology (with no capital B) turned out to be able to be 
>understood in a completely ahistorical context.

This is where the paleobiology crowd has a role to play; what is the 
importance of contingency in the development of the earth systems as 
we know them.  Chemicals always jump through the same hoops reliably. 
Organisms (delightfully) do not.

Bill
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William P. Chaisson         
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences
University of Rochester                       ph  585-275-0601
Rochester, New York  14627  USA            fax  585-244-5689

http://www.earth.rochester.edu/chaisson/chaisson.html