Back in the 1960s, NASA hired British scientist James Lovelock to design space flight instruments to test whether Mars has life. NASA chose Lovelock because he had already invented sensitive instruments that could detect tiny amounts of chemicals in our atmosphere. Lovelock thought about the problem and told NASA that he already knew the answer.

Pages 60 and 61 of Dr. Art's Guide to Planet Earth explain his reasoning. Lovelock later developed his Gaia theory about how life keeps conditions on Earth relatively stable. As this web site develops, this section will describe Lovelock's Gaia theory and explain how it is related to this web site's description of Earth as a whole system. If you have not already done so, register to Dr. Art's Latest News and receive email updates so we can tell you when new features have been added to the site.