Nieft / Secola wrote:
> Several years ago I read a stop-me-in-my-tracks article in the now-defunct
> Science magazine (as in Science 88 and Science 89, at least I think it was
> that mag since I have never been able to find it in Scientific American
> back issues) about a gaia-like theory of microbes. If anyone has info on
> the article or researcher, I sure would appreciate a pointer! Anyway, I
> think it was written by a French-Canadian researcher in Montreal but am not
> sure. The view held that microbes be looked at as a vast multi-faceted
> planetary organism, mutating in a jiffy to changes in condition and
> constantly on the duty of keeping the vital links between the organic and
> the inorganic world in flux, chomping anything of questionable > "integrity"
> (like metabolic wastes and weak/useless microbes, plants, animals), > and of
> course, simply multiplying in accordance with it's food supply. When > viewed

The researcher is Gaston Naessons and The subject is Pleomorphism.
There are 2 books by Chris Bird. One is The Secret Life of Plants it has
a chapter on Naessons, the other is something like The Trial of Gaston
Naesons.