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To honor Darwin's birthday: some words from Lynn Margulis, evolutionary biologist

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JackRiddler Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Feb-12-09 01:02 PM
Original message
To honor Darwin's birthday: some words from Lynn Margulis, evolutionary biologist
Edited on Thu Feb-12-09 01:10 PM by JackRiddler
Lynn Margulis revolutionized biology. She was mocked for what she theorized years before it became universal knowledge: the prediction of mitochondrial DNA; the theory of how complex cell structures arose through ingestion of other organisms leading to symbiosis; the theory of the biosphere as single system ("Gaia hypothesis").

Richard Dawkins has described her endosymbiosis theory as "one of the great achievements of twentieth-century evolutionary biology."

Here's Prof. Margulis's statement to the website 'PatriotsQuestion9/11' on August 27 2007:

"The 9/11 tragedy is the most successful and most perverse publicity stunt in the history of public relations. I arrive at this conclusion largely as the result of the research and clear writing by David Ray Griffin in his fabulous books about 9/11. I first met him when he was a speaker at a scholarly conference unrelated to 9/11. He immediately impressed me as a brilliant, outstanding philosopher - theologian - author, a Whiteheadian scholar motivated by an intense curiosity to know everything possible about the world.

On the plane home and for the next two days I did little else but read Griffin’s first book about 9/11, The New Pearl Harbor. From there I went on to read his even more disturbing account of the bogus 9/11 Commission Report, The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions, which provides overwhelming evidence that the official story is contradictory, incomplete, and unbelievable.

It is clear to me that David Ray Griffin and his fellow critics are correct: the 9/11 "new Pearl Harbor" was planned in astonishing detail and carried out through the efforts of a sophisticated and large network of operatives. It was more complex and far more successful than the Allende assassination, the US bombing of our own ship the "Maine" that began the Spanish-American war (and brought us Guam, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Philippines), the Reichstag fire that was used to justify the suspension of most civil liberties in Germany in the 1930's, and even Operation Himmler, which was used by Germany to justify the invasion of Poland, which started World War II.

Whoever is responsible for bringing to grisly fruition this new false-flag operation, which has been used to justify the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as unprecedented assaults on research, education, and civil liberties, must be perversely proud of their efficient handiwork. Certainly, 19 young Arab men and a man in a cave 7,000 miles away, no matter the level of their anger, could not have masterminded and carried out 9/11: the most effective television commercial in the history of Western civilization.

I suggest that those of us aware and concerned demand that the glaringly erroneous official account of 9/11 be dismissed as a fraud and a new, thorough, and impartial investigation be undertaken."

http://www.patriotsquestion911.com/professors.html#Margulis

---

Hey, she said it. I have my problems with Griffin's emphasis on unlikely or poorly argued "physical evidence" hypotheses. Then again, maybe she's smarter than me.

She's certainly earned a platform.

We might also note her first husband and father of her son was none other than Carl Sagan, who is much missed today. Would the antiwar crusader have applied his "baloney detection" to the official lies wielded by the imperial regime, as it launched long-planned aggressive war on nations obviously uninvolved in Sept. 11th? Or would he have been more concerned with upturning the generally inconsequential fallacies of more than a few 9/11 skeptics? We'll never know, but most likely he would have done a bit of both. His memory is poorly served by those who impress him posthumously into the fight to maintain official lies, and ludicrously claim their service to the imperial state is done in the proud name of skepticism.
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JackRiddler Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Feb-12-09 01:03 PM
Response to Original message
1. Lynn Margulis: career, bibliography...
Biography and publications:

Lynn Margulis, AB, MS, PhD – Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Geosciences, University of Massachusetts - Amherst. Elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1983. Former Chair, National Academy of Science's Space Science Board Committee on Planetary Biology and Chemical Evolution. Recipient of the National Medal of Science, America's highest honor for scientific achievement, in 1999, presented by President William J. Clinton. The Library of Congress, Washington, DC, announced in 1998 that it will permanently archive Dr. Margulis' papers. President of Sigma Xi, the scientific research society, from 2005 - 2006. Recipient of the Proctor Prize for scientific achievement in 1999 from Sigma Xi. Prior to moving to the University of Massachusetts, Dr. Margulis was a faculty member at Boston University for 22 years. Her publications span a wide-range of scientific topics, and include original contributions to cell biology and microbial evolution. Dr. Margulis is best known for contributions to evolution, especially the theory of symbiogenesis. For more information on Dr. Margulis' career, please visit http://www.chelseagreen.com/authors/LynnMargulis and http://www.sciencewriters.org.

Author of over 130 scientific works and numerous books. Recent publications include Mind, Life, and Universe (2007 with Eduardo Punset), Dazzle Gradually: Reflections on the Nature of Nature (2007, co-authored with Dorion Sagan), Symbiotic Planet: A New Look at Evolution (1998), Acquiring Genomes: A Theory of the Origins of Species (2002, with Dorion Sagan), Early Life: Evolution on the Precambrian Earth (2002, second edition with Michael F. Dolan), Luminous Fish: Tales of Science and Love (2006), What is Sex? (1997, with Dorion Sagan), What is Life? (1995, with Dorion Sagan), Mystery Dance: On the Evolution of Human Sexuality (1991, with Dorion Sagan), Microcosmos: Four Billion Years of Evolution From Our Microbial Ancestors (1986, with Dorion Sagan), and Origins of Sex: Three Billion Years of Genetic Recombination (1986, with Dorion Sagan), Kingdoms and Domains: Illustrated Guide to the Phyla of Life on Earth (4th edition, co-authored by Michael J. Chapman, Academic Press, 2008 in press), Symbiosis in Cell Evolution (second edition, 1993).
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seemslikeadream Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Feb-12-09 01:11 PM
Response to Original message
2. I wonder if we can get subtitles for this?
Edited on Thu Feb-12-09 01:17 PM by seemslikeadream
Lynn Margulis - Evolution, from a Gaian perspective.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXWN2qA31TU




Thanks Jack :hi:


In my first geology course in college the professor said to us "There is a new theory going around, it's call continental drift, I really can't teach it, but maybe someday"
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Bolo Boffin Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Feb-12-09 01:48 PM
Response to Original message
3. David Ray Griffin strikes again.
Edited on Thu Feb-12-09 01:48 PM by Bolo Boffin
Lynn Margulis, great in her field of expertise, lousy when it comes to resisting snake oil. So it goes.
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LARED Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Feb-12-09 07:13 PM
Response to Reply #3
6. Apparently having expert knowledge in a science related field
plus reading DRG's book is all it takes to "earn a platform." No wonder truthers are so bad at resisting snake oil.
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Orrex Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-13-09 03:32 PM
Response to Reply #3
9. For real. Even Linus Pauling was susceptible to it.
Expertise in one field certainly doesn't translave to universal expertise!
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whatchamacallit Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Sep-12-09 01:00 PM
Response to Reply #3
12. OCT peanut gallery = 0, Lynn Margulis > 0
Edited on Sat Sep-12-09 01:01 PM by whatchamacallit
:eyes:
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Bolo Boffin Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Sep-12-09 01:53 PM
Response to Reply #12
13. On matters of engineering, I'll stick with Bazant over Margulis. n/t
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JuniperLea Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Feb-12-09 02:48 PM
Response to Original message
4. Another great OP...
"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you ... then you win." - Gandhi

Yes, never battle the flat-Earth society... ask any of the early thinkers.


They all laughed at Christopher Columbus
When he said the world was round
They all laughed when Edison recorded sound
They all laughed at Wilbur and his brother
When they said that man could fly

They told Marconi
Wireless was a phony
It's the same old cry
They laughed at me wanting you
Said I was reaching for the moon
But oh, you came through
Now they'll have to change their tune

They all said we never could be happy
They laughed at us and how!
But ho, ho, ho!
Who's got the last laugh now?

They all laughed at Rockefeller Center
Now they're fighting to get in
They all laughed at Whitney and his cotton gin
They all laughed at Fulton and his steamboat
Hershey and his chocolate bar

Ford and his Lizzie
Kept the laughers busy
That's how people are
They laughed at me wanting you
Said it would be, "Hello, Goodbye."
And oh, you came through
Now they're eating humble pie



Happy Birthday Darwin... You're still being kicked around, but I suppose making people think is a success all by itself!
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JackRiddler Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Sep-12-09 12:25 PM
Response to Reply #4
11. A belated thanks & a kick for the latest sad anniversary of the Sept. 11th events
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HamdenRice Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Feb-12-09 02:59 PM
Response to Original message
5. Oh come on, Jack! Lynn Margulis has no scientific credibility
Number one, she's not a magician.

Number two, she can't bend spoons.

NOW, THEREFORE, be it resolved, she has no credibility whatsoever as a "critical thinker"!

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seemslikeadream Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-13-09 10:10 AM
Response to Reply #5
7. and I've heard rumors she can't spell worth a damn
:rofl:
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JuniperLea Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-13-09 01:03 PM
Response to Reply #7
8. Maybe she can run for Pubbie VP
On Palin's ticket in four years.
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whatchamacallit Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-14-09 07:25 PM
Response to Original message
10. Never fails to amaze
Edited on Sat Feb-14-09 07:43 PM by whatchamacallit
how a person of her stature and accomplishments can be ridiculed by the likes of the OCT peanut gallery, simply because she won't chug Kool-aid with them.
Yeah she's a deluded fool, and you guys are geniuses...
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