Biological Motion

A History of Life

Janina Wellmann, Kate Sturge

$59.99

Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

Zone Books
15 May 2024

Biotechnology

A captivating exploration of the changing definitions of life in biology

Biological Motion studies the foundational relationship between motion and life. To answer the question, “What is Life?,” prize-winning historian of science Janina Wellmann engages in a transdisciplinary investigation of motion as the most profound definition of living existence.

For decades, information and structure have dominated the historiography of the life sciences with its prevailing focus on DNA structure and function. Now more than ever, motion is a crucial theme of basic biological research. Tracing motion from Aristotle’s animal soul to molecular motors, and from medical soft robotics to mathematical analysis, Wellmann locates biological motion at the intersection of knowledge domains and scientific and cultural practices. She offers signposts to mark the sites where researchers, technologies, ideas, and practices opened up new paths in the constitution of the phenomenon of motion. An ambitious rethinking of the life sciences, Biological Motion uncovers the secret life of movement and offers a new account of what it means to be alive.

By: Janina Wellmann
Translated by: Kate Sturge
Imprint: Zone Books
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
ISBN: 9781942130819
ISBN 10: 1942130813
Pages: 336
Publication Date: 15 May 2024
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Janina Wellmann is a Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin and the author of The Form of Becoming: Embryology and the Epistemology of Rhythm, 1760–1830.