The Biology of Wonder: Aliveness, Feeling and the Metamorphosis of Science Paperback - 2016

From the rear cover

Understanding our place in the web of life

"Grounded in science, yet eloquently narrated, this is a groundbreaking book. Weber's visionary work provides new insight into human/nature interconnectedness and the dire consequences we face by remaining disconnected."
--Richard Louv, author, The Nature Principle and Last Child in the Woods

What is life? In The Biology of Wonder , scientist Andreas Weber reframes this fundamental enigma by arguing that all living beings, like humans, are not biological machines, but living, creative agents fueled by meaning and expression.

The schism between us and the natural world is arguably the root cause of most of the environmental catastrophes unravelling around us. Until we come to terms with the depths of our alienation, we will fail to understand that what happens to nature also happens to us.

This landmark work demonstrates that our connection to Earth's complex web of dynamic, interconnected relationships underpins the entire range of human experience, giving rise to a new ecological ethos, and demonstrating that subjectivity and imagination are the prerequisites of biological existence.

"Written with poetic elegance and interwoven with a rich vein of personal narrative, this extraordinary book takes the central idea of the subjectivity and interior life of all living beings and gives it concreteness..."
--Shierry Weber Nicholsen, author, The Love of Nature and the End of the World

"Weber reorients us scientifically, poetically, and morally from insufficient reductionism."
--Stuart Kauffman FRSC, Emeritus Professor, University of Pennsylvania

"In Andreas Weber's vision, nature is beautiful, and ecology is poetry. Follow his beautiful words into a science that investigates the Earth as a breathing, sensitive planet..."
--David Rothenberg, author, Survival of the Beautiful and Bug Music

Dr. Andreas Weber is a German academic, scholar and author, and is a leader in the emerging fields of biopoetics and biosemiotics. His work has been translated into several languages and published around the globe.