Short answers, pulled from the story.
James Lovelock developed the Gaia hypothesis in 1965 while working at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. He formulated the idea after observing that Earth's atmosphere was a chaotic mix of oxygen and methane unlike the chemical equilibrium found on Mars and Venus.
William Golding named the hypothesis after the Greek goddess Gaia in 1965. The Nobel Prize-winning novelist suggested the name to replace the initial title Earth feedback hypothesis because it captured the mythic resonance of the concept.
Lynn Margulis joined James Lovelock in 1971 to develop the Gaia hypothesis. The microbiologist brought expertise on how microbes influence the atmosphere and transformed the hypothesis from a philosophical observation into a rigorous scientific inquiry.
The Daisyworld model is a mathematical simulation developed by James Lovelock and Andrew Watson to defend the Gaia hypothesis. The model demonstrated that self-regulation could emerge from competition among black and white daisies altering their local environment without any need for foresight or planning.
The Great Oxygenation Event began about 50 million years before the start of the Cambrian period. This transition from a reducing environment to an oxygen-rich one was driven by the evolution of photosynthetic organisms which produced oxygen as a byproduct.
James Lovelock received the Wollaston Medal from the Geological Society of London in 2006. This prestigious award recognized his work on the Gaia hypothesis alongside his partner Lynn Margulis.