Metamorphosis

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What to expect

'Beautiful. Entertaining. Inspiring.' Nature
'Startling . . . riveting . . . hauntingly timely.' Washington Review of Books
'A meditation on transformation . . . Warm [and] empathetic . . . wonderful.' Science
'Startling . . . astounding . . . Animated by wonder.' MIT's Undark

Metamorphosis has always been one of biology's greatest wonders and toughest riddles. To emerge a butterfly, a caterpillar dissolves inside its chrysalis and builds a brand new brain, wings and legs. Why all this destruction and remodelling? Why all this wasted energy and time?

Oren Harman beautifully unfurls the untold story of metamorphosis across two millennia, asking why it has obsessed and inspired us so profoundly. Along the way we meet poets, artists, philosophers, and a cast of scientists as colourful as the animals themselves: whether Aristotle determining cucumbers had souls, Sigmund Freud searching in vain for eel testicles, or a Japanese zoologist singing karaoke to a baby jellyfish.

Taking us on an exhilarating journey through the creatures that metamorphose - a staggering three-quarters of all animal species - from starfish reproducing in reverse in ocean depths, to poison dart frogs on steaming rainforest canopies, to human adolescents struggling to control themselves, Metamorphosis is a new classic of natural history: a book that, by explaining a mystery of nature, causes us to relearn ourselves.

Critics Review

Metamorphosis is a soulful, genre-defying inquiry into the nature of transformation. Harman interweaves a history of scientific discovery with philosophy and memoir, introducing readers to astonishing characters and discoveries that bring us from the depths of the ocean to the furthest reaches of outer space. Metamorphosis asks difficult questions with great tenderness and deep humanity. It is a book full of wonder and revelation
Laura Redniss, author of Oak Flat
A masterful tale of the long quest to understand one of the most wondrous and enigmatic phenomena in the animal world. Fueled by Oren Harman's boundless curiosity and rich storytelling, Metamorphosis roams the globe to meet fascinating creatures and equally colorful naturalists determined to penetrate their secrets. A thoroughly enjoyable and illuminating journey
Sean B. Carroll, author of THE SERENGETI RULES
Stranger than the strangest imaginings of ancient mythology or science fiction are the metamorphoses undergone by the most unprepossessing of organisms: the immortal medusa, the starfish that is simultaneously child and adult, the axolotl in which the parent is the child to its offspring. Oren Harman weaves together science, history, philosophy, and the musings of a parent-to-be in this beautiful book about the twists and turns in the plot of life
Lorraine Daston, author of OBJECTIVITY
'Harman, whose The Price of Altruism was Pultizer-nominated, knows how to pique interest'
Country Life
An absorbing and beautifully written exploration of biological transformation and generation, winding through the startling history of this field, accompanied by an array of fascinating characters, and with a moving personal dimension.
Peter Godfrey-Smith, author of OTHER MINDS
Beautiful. Entertaining. Inspiring. A sweeping exploration of the changes in form that animals experience throughout their lives. Its treatment of the big themes of biology is perfect for the layperson and for young scientists.
Nature
Warm, empathetic . . . wonderful. In Metamorphosis: A Natural and Human History, historian of science Oren Harman offers meditation on transformation writ large. His focus is not only on the remarkable transformations seen in nature-as when a caterpillar becomes a butterfly, a tadpole a frog, or a polyp a jellyfish-but also on transformations we humans experience over the course of our lives as we encounter new people, ideas, and experiences.
Science
Startling . . . What's astounding about Metamorphosis is the audacity of its scope: it's hunger to understand not just the transitions in plain sight, but those that built beneath the surface, waiting for the right moment to burst forth . . . Animated with wonder . . . Harman takes full advantage of his subject's poetic richness.
MIT's Undark
Oren Harman traces the genesis of developmental zoology from ancient times to our current knowledge of the evolutionary origins and molecular basis of metamorphosis, and the abiding questions it raises about human identity.
Natural History Magazine
A startling exploration of the meaning of transformation. Metamorphosis is steeped in wonderment . . . and hauntingly timely. Harman, a renowned historian of science and author of Evolutions and The Price of Altruism, is adept at describing the interplay of facts and ideas that have shaped the dynamic field of evolutionary biology. This probing book is for anyone who appreciates the splendor of the scientific enterprise and especially for anyone who doesn't.
Washington Review of Books
Inspired by history, language, and biology, Oren Harman explores a wonderland of animal lifecycles to tell a truly fascinating tale of transformations in body and identity. His story culminates in the growth of a human child and asks how is it possible to remain ourselves while changing all the time? A book to treasure
Janet Browne, Harvard University, author of CHARLES DARWIN: A BIOGRAPHY

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