“Scientists don’t do enough to emphasize the mystery of the world behind appearances, and what is so often taken for granted, missed entirely, or unexamined in the domain of human experience. This book is an inspiring and convincing antidote to that trend. It is a rigorous and yet very personal inquiry into and recounting of how scientific knowledge does not preclude, diminish, or extinguish the experience of transcendence, but rather brings it very much to the fore. Lightman provides direct inspiration to the reader to apprehend for oneself and revel in the wonder that is everywhere.” 

-- Jon Kabat-Zinn

Founder of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)

Author of Meditation Is Not What You Think and Falling Awake

“A remarkable meditation on the emergent structures, feelings, and values that arise from the self-organization of neurons, atoms, and creatures. The book is an invitation to reflect on the wonder of firefly group flashes, sociality and, ultimately, consciousness itself.” 

-- Peter Galison

University Professor of the History of Science and of Physics, Harvard University

Author of (with Lorraine Daston) Objectivity

“With scholarly verve and unbounded curiosity, Alan Lightman asks how our experiences of awe, wonder, and the sublime can unfold in a universe — and in our brains — built only of atoms. A fascinating exploration of where science and humanism meet.”

 

— David Kaiser, Germeshausen Professor of Physics and the History of Science, MIT

*Pre-Orders will ship out the week of March 14th*