Dazzle Gradually

"Dazzle Gradually is like an air-raid siren, calling for science to reinvent itself for the 21st century; to look beyond the categorization and characterization of things and the traditional view of nature into a highly networked and involved view. In particular, it advises us to descend from our throne of delusion and realize that humanity (with all its technological and cultural trappings), is intimately and inextricably immersed in this grand system along with the protoctists and bacteria, plants and animals, the living world that surrounds us. Our very identity—our minds and souls—are a result of the evolving experiment we call nature. Dazzle Gradually is like opening the door to a vast and brilliant garden, which slowly assimilates us as we become part of nature's teeming, humming, growing, and unendingly magical realm."

—Stephen Miles Uzzo, Ph.D., New York Hall of Science

A Sciencewriters Book

At the crossroads of philosophy and science.

At the crossroads of philosophy and science, the sometimes-dry topics of evolution and ecology come alive in this new collection of essays—many never before anthologized. Learn how technology may be a sort of second nature, how the systemic human fungus Candida albicans can lead to cravings for carrot cake and beer, how the presence of life may be why there's water on Earth, and many other fascinating facts.

The essay "Metametazoa" presents perspectives on biology in a philosophical context, demonstrating how the intellectual librarian, pornographer, and political agitator Georges Bataille was influenced by Russian mineralogist Vladimir Vernadsky and how this led to his notion of the absence of meaning in the face of the sun—which later influenced Jacques Derrida, thereby establishing a causal chain of influence from the hard sciences to topics as abstract as deconstruction and postmodernism.

In "Spirochetes Awake" the bizarre connection between syphilis and genius in the life of Friedrich Nietzsche is traced. The astonishing similarities of the Acquired-Immunity-Deficiency-Syndrome symptoms with those of chronic spirochete infection, it is argued, contrast sharply with the lack of evidence that "HIV is the cause of AIDS". Throughout these readings we are dazzled by the intimacy and necessity of relationships between us and our other planetmates. In our ignorance as "civilized" people we dismiss, disdain, and deny our kinship with the only productive life forms that sustain this living planet.

Sciencewriters Books Imprint

With the publication of Dazzle Gradually Chelsea Green adds to the newly launched Sciencewriters Books, a new imprint to develop outstanding works of science for the general public. Sciencewriters Books is codirected by Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan, founders of Sciencewriters, an educational partnership devoted to advancing science through fantastic and informative books, videos, and other media (www.sciencewriters.org). Blending exciting writing with depth of knowledge and dedication to scientific integrity, Sciencewriters Books will publish new and established authors on cutting-edge topics that are key to our survival.

About the Authors

Dorion Sagan

Dorion Sagan is the author of numerous articles and sixteen books translated into eleven languages, including Into the Cool: Energy Flow, Thermodynamics, and Life (with Eric D. Schneider, 2005) and Up from Dragons: Evolution of Human Intelligence (with John Skoyles, 2002). His What is Life? (with Lynn Margulis) was chosen (with works by Billie Holiday, Shakespeare, and others) as one of fifty "mind-altering masterpieces" by the Utne Reader. Sagan's essays are included in collections edited by Richard Dawkins and E. O. Wilson. He graduated from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst with a degree in history and has interests in philosophy ...

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Lynn Margulis

Lynn Margulis, Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, received the 1999 National Medal of Science from President Bill Clinton. She has been a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences since 1983 and of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences since 1997. Author, editor, or coauthor of chapters in more than forty books, she has published or been profiled in many journals, magazines, and books, among them Natural History, Science, Nature, New England Watershed, Scientific American, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Science Firsts, and The Scientific 100. She ...

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