Margulis Symbiotic Planet

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Lynn Margulis' Symbiotic Planet was probably worth reading. It's not nearly as good as Microcosmos, which I would recommend to anyone looking for a good book on biology, especially anyone interested in reading Margulis. On the other hand, if you don't really want to read a book on biology, but you want to read a book by a prominent biologist, Symbiotic Planet might be a good choice. It's very short and easy to read. A lot of it isn't really about biology per se. It deals significantly with history of science and autobiography.

My main criticism of Symbiotic Planet is that it's too scattered and too brief to make much of a point. You pick up a little bit of biology that you might not have known (but probably did if you were someone who was inclined to read it to begin with). You read very brief descriptions of a few interesting experiments or a few interesting results that those experiments found. You learn quite a bit about how Margulis approached biology, which is arguably useful, given her influence on the field. She believed that the perspective of a student of the humanities is underrated in science. She might be right. She believed that when scientists dismiss material outside of their area of focus as unimportant before they bother to learn more about it, they're displaying hubris not the ability to prudently select priorities. Her career demonstrates that she was right about this.