Does life regulate the Earth's atmosphere? The Gaia hypothesis with Professor Ben Mills (Part 1)

Does life regulate the Earth's atmosphere? The Gaia hypothesis with Professor Ben Mills (Part 1)

From Wonder by GeoCo

April 21, 2026 · 32 min

About this episode

Professor Ben Mills discusses the Gaia hypothesis and its implications for Earth's atmosphere and climate.

Todays show is something super special for you guys... Professor Ben Mills joins us in studio (all the way from the UK!) to walk us through what is genuinely one of the most interesting scientific ideas about our planet: the Gaia hypothesis. The Gaia hypothesis posits that life doesn't just passively inhabit habitable conditions on the Earth ... rather, life itself regulates the atmosphere, oceans and climate over billions of years and thus maintains a habitable planet. Ben explains it all to us, and on the way we walk through his origin story as a mathematician at the University of East Anglia, through his chance introduction to the Gaia hypothesis under PhD supervisor Andy Watson, and into the heart of modern Earth system modelling – where simple equations on a piece of paper are now evolving into 3D simulations of our living planet. Along the way we get into oxygen, wildfires, cigarettes in bell jars, Daisy World, and what all of this might tell us about finding life on other worlds. Make sure you're following Wonder wherever you get your podcasts - and chuck that notifications bell on! We release a GeoCo News email newsletter. You wouldn't want to miss out... ⁠⁠sign up…

People in this episode

Host: GeoCo

Guest: Professor Ben Mills

Topics covered

Keywords

Sponsors

Geological Society of Australia

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of East Anglia

Places: Adelaide Plains, UK, Australia

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