Heard about this last night. She died peacefully at her home in Massachusetts yesterday evening, surrounded by family.
(We had just seen her son Dorion Sagan, son of Carl, give a great talk at the anthropology conference last Friday, after which he and his partner had to speed back to Toronto to get their passports to fly to Boston.)
She was one of most important biologists of the past century, and the female face of the Gaia hypothesis, the radical implications of which have yet to be recognized. (They go beyond the popular interpretations and involve the importance of understanding symbiosis and the role of bacteria in life on Earth.)
May she rest in peace.
Wow. Why wasn’t her passing in the mainstream media, such as Yahoo News? They can put nonsense week-after-week on Lohan’s tribulations but miss the importance of Professor Margulis. Rest In Peace.