As a result, the black daisies absorb more sunlight, making them hotter, and warming the planet; the white daisies reflect light, are less hot, and help cool the planet. Under cool conditions, the black daisies thrive, and under hot conditions, white daisies have an advantage. This is the heart of Lovelock’s enduring yet highly controversial Gaia hypothesis, named for the Greek goddess that personifies Earth. Further, Earth’s atmosphere is an anomaly that is out of equilibrium in a chemical sense, Lovelock wrote in an article published as a chapter of the 1988 book, Biodiversity. When Lovelock first proposed the Gaia hypothesis, “it was not well received,” he admitted in the 1988 article.