The Many Lives of James Lovelock: Science, Secrets, Spycraft and Gaia Theory

This rigorous biography by journalist Watts (When a Billion Chinese Jump) dives deep into the life of James Lovelock, the scientist famed for proposing the Gaia hypothesis in the 1970s, the idea that Earth and all who live on it function as an interconnected living organism. Gaia, however, was only the tip of Lovelock’s intellectual iceberg. Lovelock, who died in 2022 at age 103, was, according to Watts, a versatile innovator and a “true polymath.” His eclectic résumé included working for Britain’s National Institute for Medical Research, NASA, the oil company Shell, the computer firm Hewlett-Packard, and even the British secret intelligence agencies MI5 and MI6, which Watts claims made Lovelock “almost certainly Britain’s longest-serving spy.” The most consequential invention of his life, Watts notes, was the electron capture detector, which can measure components of gases and liquids in concentrations of parts per trillion—a transformative technology that led to the identification of ozone-depleting gases in the stratosphere; carcinogens in air, soil, and water; and hidden explosives in war zones. Watts paints a captivating portrait of a man whose imagination and genius changed the way scientists think about humans’ place on the planet and the nature of Earth itself. The result is a revealing window into an extraordinary mind. (Sept.)