紹介
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日本を代表する植物学者、岩槻邦男の名著『生命系：生物多様性の新しい見方』（1999年、岩波書店）を、20年を経て加筆修正し、世界に向け英語版として出版。生物は今という時を個体だけで生きているのではなく、ほかの生物とさまざまな関係をもって、生命発生以来の広大な時空間のなかに生きている。この生命活動を「生命系（Spherophylon）」という新しい概念に基づいてこれからの地球創成の道を提案する。
目次
Contents
Foreword v
Author’s Preface xiii
Prologue Life on Earth Now: The Living Spherophylon 1
The lives of humans 2
We live because we are human 5
Is ignorance a crime? 7
Learning from our Neolithic ancestors 8
Can we make the right choice again? 9
Spherophylon and the traditional Japanese spirit 11
Why spherophylon now? 14
Chapter 1 Life Supported by Time—How Old is Your Life? 19
1. The Age of Life 19
How long have you lived? 19
Over three billion years of life 20
2. The Age of the Materials that Form Individual Organisms 22
How old is your body? 22
The body is young forever 24
3. The Age of an Individual 25
When are individuals born? 25
Death: the end of a lifespan 27
Medical treatments and human brain death 29
Are individuals expendable? 33
How individuals influence the spherophylon after death 34
Chapter 2 Biodiversity: Life Integrated on Earth beyond Time and Space 37
1. Species Diversity: How Much Do We Knowabout Species? 37
The current state of biodiversity research 37
The number of extant species on Earth 38
Analysis of species diversity 42
The concept of biological species 44
2. Genetic Diversity 45
The structure and function of DNA 46
The genetic laws of inheritance 47
3. Biodiversity: Diverse phenomena found in living things 49
Ecological diversity 49
The characteristics of living things vary 50
The diversity of organisms at various levels: DNA, cells, individuals, species, the ecosystem, and the spherophylon 51
4. The Phylogeny of Living Organisms 54
Organisms differentiating into myriad types 54
Principles resulting in biodiversity 55
All organisms are related to each other 56
Chapter 3 Life Supported by Space: Mutual Collaboration by All the Organisms on Earth 59
1. How Complete Is an Individual in Its Life? 59
What is an individual? 59
The spherophylon and cloned sheep: a dream of a better life 64
The transfer of life from one individual to another: A generational update 68
Learning from the dead 69
2. The Life of a Cell 70
The atoms and molecules that constitute a lifecarrying body 70
Viruses 72
The diverse lives of cells 75
Cells and multicellular individuals 79
3. The Ecosystem: Organisms Living in Collaboration 80
Creatures that one person has direct relationships with 80
Creatures that have indirect relationships with people 81
The circle of life that forms the spherophylon 84
What is the spherophylon? 86
4. Individuals as Components of the Spherophylon 87
The current form of individuals and the spherophylon 87
The development of individuals and phylogeny 89
Haeckel’s recapitulation theory and the spherophylon 90
Chapter 4 Science, Nature, and Humanity 93
1. What Science Has Given Us 93
What we don’t know 93
Realize how little we know 94
Make people understand that they do not understand 96
How far can something be proven? 97
2. What Science Is Capable of Now 98
Earthquake prediction: a case study of scientific precognition 98
Global warming and biodiversity 101
Changes in organisms brought on by global warming 103
COVID-19 and the life of the spherophylon 105
3. Research on Biodiversity 106
Biodiversity and the spherophylon 106
Biology and biodiversity research 107
The biology of diversity 111
4. Integrative Science 112
Cells, individuals, and the spherophylon 112
Various aspects of biodiversity research 114
Analysis of species diversity 117
Chapter 5 The Spherophylon and Humans as an Element Thereof 119
1. The Lives of Humans and Nonhuman Organisms 119
From humans as one species of living organisms to people and civilizations 119
Life as people recognize it 122
Human life controlled by people 126
The lives of nonhuman organisms 128
Understanding people properly 129
2. Nature and Artificiality 131
How natural is nature now? 131
Artificiality in human life 134
Going back to nature 136
The impact of civilization on the diversification of plants 137
3. Human Life and Nature 139
Genetic resources 139
Conservation of the human environment 141
Reverence for life 143
The narcissism of the spherophylon on Earth 146
Chapter 6 Living the Life of the Spherophylon 147
1. The Reality of the Spherophylon on Earth 147
The life of the spherophylon 147
Understanding the Earth’s spherophylon 148
A spherophylon for each time and location 151
What evolution brings to the spherophylon 152
2. The Healthy Life of the Spherophylon 155
Nature conservation and human activity 155
Protecting the eternal life of the spherophylon 156
Disease prevention for the spherophylon 159
Chapter 7 Harmonious Coexistence between Nature and Humankind 161
1. The Progress of Technology and Civilization 161
What is technology? 161
Technology and science 162
Progress in technology 165
Scientific technology and seafood 166
2. What Technology Brings About 168
What technology gives us 168
How to use technology 170
3. What Is Expected of Technology 173
Technology for nature conservation 173
Learning from nature: what it means to be one with nature 175
Example 1: The development of agriculture in a desert area (Taklamakan Desert) 178
Example 2: Wisdom in terraced fields (Yunnan) 180
Example 3: A green city in the desert (Leigh Creek) 181
4. Creating an Environment that Transcends Time and Space 184
The development and creation of the environment 184
Creating an environment that transcends time 186
Creating an environment that transcends space 187
5. Human Life and the Spherophylon 188
Loving the spherophylon on Earth 188
Either in harmony with nature or conquering nature 190
People living in harmony with nature 192
Chapter 8 What We Are to Create 195
Environmental creation based on people’s wishes 195
Everyone should know 197
Chopsticks culture and the creation of eternal environment 198
What is the creation of the environment? 200
Let Earth’s spherophylon prosper 201
Challenges for modern humans: what we should create now 202
Concluding remarks: for the healthy growth of the life of the spherophylon 203
Acknowledgments 207
Bibliography 209
Color plates follow page 170.
