We Are the World: The Environment as Part of the Body

By Scott F. Gilbert.

Talk description

Lynn Margulis' 2006 claim that "the environment is part of the body" has been substantially confirmed by developmental biology. Developmental biology is the science of body construction, including "embryology" and also the areas of regeneration, stem cells, and metamorphosis.

There are three areas that had been peripheral to developmental biology (and to biology, in general) in the 20th century and that have become much more important in the 21st century:

(1) Developmental plasticity is the idea that a genotype encodes a repertoire of possible phenotypes and that the actual phenotype produced is elicited by the environment. Once seen in only a few organisms, developmental plasticity is now seen to be a general phenomenon of life;

(2) Developmental symbiosis is the idea that microbes and other symbiotic organisms interact normally with the zygote-derived cells to help construct the body. This had formerly been believed to be characteristic of only a few organisms. Now it is seen as typical;

(3) Teratogenesis, the ability of environmental agents to interfere with normal development, was formerly believed to be a property of very few agents, whose effects were accidental and local. Today's knowledge of endocrine disruptors shows that common chemicals at low doses from our social environment can put development at risk throughout the planet. The environment has definitely become part of the body.