This highly unusual book began as a serious inquiry into Schrödinger’s question, “What is life?”, and as a celebration of life itself. It takes the reader on a voyage of discovery through many areas of contemporary physics, from non-equilibrium thermodynamics and quantum optics to liquid crystals and fractals, all necessary for illuminating the problem of life. In the process, the reader is treated to a rare and exquisite view of the organism, gaining novel insights not only into the physics, but also into “the poetry and meaning of being alive.”

This much-enlarged third edition includes new findings on the central role of biological water in organizing living processes; it also completes the author’s novel theory of the organism and its applications in ecology, physiology and brain science.

Mae-Wan Ho, B.Sc. (First Class) and Ph.D. Biochemistry, Hong Kong University, embarked on a distinguished academic career that included Postdoctoral Fellow in Neurosciences, University of California at San Diego; Fellow of the National Genetics Foundation, USA; Senior Research Fellow, University of London; and Lecturer in Genetics and then Reader in Biology, Open University, UK. Her research evolved through biochemistry, molecular genetics and non-Darwinian evolution to the physics of organisms — a new discipline defined in the present book, first published in 1993 and the 2nd edition in 1998 – and is widely acclaimed by serious scientists and non-scientists alike. Her other books include Bioelectrodynamics and Biocommunication (1994), Bioenergetics (1995), Genetic Engineering: Dream or Nightmare? (1998, 1999, reprint with extended introduction in 2007), Living with the Fluid Genome (2003), Energy and Information Transfer in Biological Systems (2003), Unravelling AIDS (2005), Which Energy? (2006), Food Futures Now, Organic, Sustainable, Fossil Fuel Free (2008). Mae-Wan Ho now lives in London with her husband, and is Director and co-founder of the Institute of Science in Society (www.i-sis.org.uk) and Editor of Science in Society.