Margulis

[Ken Kinman]

>From: Don McAllister I suppose all of you guys have read Lynn Margulis
>(1998) book, Symbiotic Planet.  I am just getting around to read it. But is
>discusses various trans-lineage evolutionary occurrences.
*********
Don,
     Actually I haven't gotten around to reading it either. She is quite a
prolific book writer, and has made important contributions, but in her case,
I find it more informative to follow her papers in the primary literature.
If her "spirochaete" hypothesis for the origin of undulipodia (i.e., cilia;
eukaryotic "flagella") turned out to be true, it would be a great triumph
for her, but some believe that she might be sort of beating a dead horse on
that issue.  I personally find Martin and Muller's "Hydrogen Hypothesis"
(Nature, March 1998) on the origin of mitochondria much more interesting,
innovative, and plausible (and not just because it is novel).  Of course,
they are standing on the shoulders of people like Margulis (just as she
likewise stood on the shoulders of that Russian biologist whose name I can
never remember how to spell).  But if Martin and Muller published a book,
I'd be the first in line, because that is where I perceive the cutting-edge
to be.  But then, in retrospect, I would have probably have been better off
reading Margulis' book this weekend than Miklausen's.  Live and learn, I
guess.
                         --------Ken Kinman
P.S.  I do hope Margulis fully discussed the proposed (in 1992 or 1993?)
symbiotic origins of coelenterate stinging cells (nematocysts) from
free-living Protists [sorry Lynn, the name Protoctist just doesn't appeal to
me].  Again this is more novel than the "spirochaete"/undulipodia
hypothesis, but in my opinion more likely and "cutting-edge".


_______________________________________________________________
Get Free Email and Do More On The Web. Visit http://www.msn.com