Lynn Margulis
- Born
- 5 March 1938
- Died
- 22 November 2011 (age 73)
Lynn Margulis was known for her scientific theory on the evolution and origin of complex cells, called symbiogenesis or endosymbiotic theory.
Margulis described herself as a bad student. Her parents enrolled her in the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. She left, but returned again two years later. She was studying for a PhD at the University of California, but separated from her husband before the end of her studies, and relocated with her sons to Massachusetts in 1963. She took up a biology lectureship at Brandeis University in Waltham where she stayed for 22 years.
In 1967, Margulis published On the Origin of Mitosing Cells. In this paper, she proposed that complex cells developed when simple bacteria were incorporated into some early cells. They became the chloroplasts that enable plants to photosynthesize and mitochondria to release energy. The theory of incorporation of bacteria into cells to form more complex cells was called ‘symbiogenesis’ and was a controversial and revolutionary discovery.
Margulis was highly criticised for her proposals, and she repeatedly stood up for her ideas, submitting her paper to a dozen journals before it was published. She had discovered symbiogenesis without training in molecular biology. At the time of her discovery, this field of biology was only beginning to develop.
She also published books, including Origins of Eurkaryotic Cells in 1970, which received a lot of criticism. In 1982 she released a book which was written with Karlene V Schwartz. This described a five-kingdom system of classifying living things.
Margulis also championed the work of British scientist James Lovelock who suggested the ‘Gaia hypothesis’ which describes the Earth as a self-regulating organism.
Margulis was awarded the US President’s National Medal of Science, was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences. She was also awarded the Darwin-Wallace Medal of the Linnean Society.