Dimensions
162 x 240 x 27mm
Visionary, inventor, radical, free thinker and soon-to-be space traveller, Jim Lovelock is an iconic figure in British science, and a prophet whose prophecies are now coming true. This is his definitive, authorized biography.
Lovelock is best known as the 'father' of Gaia theory, the idea of our planet as a self-regulating organism, which is now established as the most useful way of understanding the dramatic changes happening to the environment of the Earth. But few people know about his early work as a chemist and inventor – work which included inventing the detectors used to search for life on Mars, and blowing the whistle on the depletion of the ozone layer. In his personal life, he was a Quaker and conscientious objector in the Second World War (later changing his mind in view of the evils of Nazism), supported his family for a time by selling his own blood, and gave up a salary and security to become an independent scientist based in an English village – from which all his best-known work emerged.
As Lovelock approaches his ninetieth birthday, looking forward to flying into the stratosphere in a rocket, this book truly reveals an independent, original and inspiring life.
