James Lovelock’s lecture notes for the 1988 Chapman Conference on Gaia

Typescript lecture paper by James Lovelock, titled 'Chapman Conference March 1988'. Includes manuscript, in ink and pencil, annotations and alterations throughout, with ink sketches on back of document. 8 pages, stapled together.

In 1988 James Lovelock addressed the audience of the American Geophysical Union’s (AGU) Chapman Conference, meetings which aim to solve challenges in specific scientific fields. In his lecture he described how provocative it is to describe the Earth as being alive. This is in reference to his Gaia hypothesis that envisages the world as an integrated system including both living and non-living constituents of our planet. The Gaia hypothesis draws on Lovelock’s experience and knowledge of many different scientific fields, and is considered to be his most famous and controversial idea.