The Earth, James Lovelock proposes, behaves as if it were a superorganism, made up from all the living things and from their material environment. When he first sketched out his brilliant Gaia theory in the 1970s, people around the world embraced it; within a short time Gaia has moved from the margins of scientific research to the mainstream. James Lovelock argues that such things as the level of oxygen, the formation of clouds, and the saltiness of the oceans may all be controlled by interacting physical, chemical, and biological processes. He believes that "the self-regulation of climate and chemical composition is a process that emerges from the tightly coupled evolution of rocks, air, and ocean - in addition to that of organisms. Such interlocking self-regulation, while rarely optimal - consider the cold and hot places of the earth, the wet and the dry - nevertheless keeps the Earth a fit place for life." The New York Times Book Review has called his arguments in favor of Gaia "plausible and above all illuminating." Now, in an updated paperback edition, fully revised, the author amplifies his account of how Gaia works with descriptions of new fields of research that have been opened by this pathbreaking concept.

詹姆斯·拉伍洛剋，是一個有主見的科學傢、發明傢和作傢。他1974年成為英國皇傢學會的成員，1990年獲得由荷蘭皇傢藝術與科學學院頒發的第一屆阿姆斯特丹奬環境奬。他的發明之一是電子俘獲探測器，這對於環境意識的發展非常重要。因為它揭示瞭無處不在的農藥殘留。他還和NASA閤作展開研究，他的一些發明還被用於行星探測的項目。

譯者簡介：肖顯靜，中國社會科學院哲學研究所教授，博士生導師，中國社會科學院科學技術與社會研究中心主任。研究方嚮為科學哲學（生態學哲學）、科學技術與社會（科學技術與環境論）。

範祥東，南京大學哲學係博士研究生，南京師範大學中北學院兩課教研室講師。主要研究方嚮為科學技術哲學（環境哲學）。