Liberation Biology

In the past half century, DNA, genes and evolutionary determinism have shaped our understanding of the living world and our deepest assumptions about humans, heritability and society at large. Beyond being a reductionist distortion, such biology has justified everything from the commodification of the living - human organs, seed, landscapes, and livelihoods - to the financialization of our beliefs. How did modern science end up with such a myopic view? And how can we begin to rectify this distorted understanding?

Liberation Biology proposes a critical approach to the deep roots of our understanding of the living. Based on both an exhumation of forgotten knowledge and on radically transformative new experimental evidence, Liberation Biology puts to rest many questions while re-casting others that may lead to a world in which we not only survive, but actually thrive.

Ignacio Chapela is an microbial ecologist and mycologist at the University of California, Berkeley, and an outspoken critic of the university’s ties to the biotechnology industry.