The Symbiotic Vision

(There are more technical and precise definitions of this hugely important term.) second, Leopold argued that the way humans can be symbiotic depends crucially on our cultivation of a land ethic (call it an environmental ethic if you like) - a highly nuanced and always corrigible set of habits that centres on inclusion of the land in the circle of ethical regard. (Margulis also offers some personal memories of her marriage to astronomer Carl Sagan and her struggles to get her radical ideas accepted by the scientific community.) Margulis is famed for her theory of serial endosymbiosis, which argues that all nucleated cells (such as the ones that make up our bodies) are in fact colonies of highly interdependent bacteria.