The Cycle of Life:
An History of Experimental Ecology

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The Sterling Memorial Library holds a rich collection of materials related to the "cycle of life" in its stacks and offsite holdings at the MUDD Library. These works reflect the long history of exploring the "cycle of life" experimentally. These selections trace this story from its origin in the late 18th century naturphilosophie of Humboldt and E. Darwin, to Dumas' organic chemistry in the 1830s, to the rise of microbiology in the work of Pasteur and Cohn in the mid 19th century. Winogradsky's work from 1880-1940 and finally its transformation into ecosystem ecology, soil microbiology, and Deep Ecology.

Erasmus Darwin, Zoonomia, 1793
Charles Darwin, On the Formation of Vegetable Matter by Worms, 1881
Alexander von Humboldt, Cosmos, 1858
Dumas and Boussingault, Balance of Organic Matter, 1844
Ferdinand Cohn, Bacteria, The Smallest Living Beings, 1872
Louis Pasteur, Etudes sur la Biere, 1862
Selman Waksman, Sergei Winogradsky, 1953
Selman Waksman, Humus, 1939
Vladimir Vernadsky, Principles of Biogeochemistry, 1960
James Lovelock, An Homage to Gaia, 1985
 
Lloyd Ackert
Whitney Humanities Center
Yale University
53 Wall Street
P.O. Box 208298
New Haven, CT 06520-8298
Office: (203).432.3112

lloydackert@sbcglobal.net
The Sterling Memorial Exhibit is located in the Overflow Case to the left of the circulation desk. The Sterling Memorial Library is located at

120 High Street
Yale University
New Haven, CT 06520
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