I wish my share of this article included Gideon Rosenblatt’s comments, but it doesn’t, so you should also check out his post (https://plus.google.com/+GideonRosenblatt/posts/eqxhz3NjSix).
I’m sharing this to my Collection in the hope that I’ll remember to come back and digest it more fully, because it fits nicely in with a book I recently read (The Big Picture by Sean M. Carroll) and one that I’m currently reading (From Bacteria to Bach and Back by Daniel Dennett).
Originally shared by Vladimir Pecha
The energy expansions of evolution
The history of the life–Earth system can be divided into five ‘energetic’ epochs, each featuring the evolution of life forms that can exploit a new source of energy. These sources are: geochemical energy, sunlight, oxygen, flesh and fire. The first two were present at the start, but oxygen, flesh and fire are all consequences of evolutionary events. Since no category of energy source has disappeared, this has, over time, resulted in an expanding realm of the sources of energy available to living organisms and a concomitant increase in the diversity and complexity of ecosystems. These energy expansions have also mediated the transformation of key aspects of the planetary environment, which have in turn mediated the future course of evolutionary change. Using energy as a lens thus illuminates patterns in the entwined histories of life and Earth, and may also provide a framework for considering the potential trajectories of life–planet systems elsewhere.
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