Caspar Henderson

An entrancing guide to the world's most far-fetched creatures - a unique blend of cutting edge science and philosophical meditation on what we humans can learn from the extraordinary animals around us. From Axolotl to Zebrafish, meet a world of 'barely imagined beings': real creatures that are often stranger and more astonishing than anything dreamt in the pages of a medieval bestiary. Ranging from the depths of the ocean to the most arid corners of the earth, Caspar Henderson captures the beauty and bizarreness of the many living forms we thought we knew and some we could never have contemplated, and invites us to better imagine the world around us. An extraordinary, vivid combination of natural history and spiritual primer, The Book of Barely Imagined Beings is a mind-expanding, wonder-inducing read.

A 21st Century Bestiary

The Book of Barely Imagined Beings

A New Map of Wonders charts a course through the realm of the fascinating and awe-inspiring. With the curiosity and enthusiasm of a great explorer, the award-winning Caspar Henderson celebrates and explains the wonder of light and the origins of the universe, the myriad marvels of the human body and the natural world -- and reveals the wonders to come: the technologies that will transform human experience and change what we will find wonderful. Drawing on philosophy and natural history, art and religion, neuroscience and nanotechnology, A New Map of Wonders is a celebration of life -- a rich and inspiring guide, encouraging us to see the world anew.

A Journey in Search of Modern Marvels

A New Map of Wonders

A wide-ranging exploration of the sounds that shape our world in invisible yet significant ways. The crackling of a campfire. The scratch, hiss, and pop of a vinyl record. The first glug of wine as it is poured from a bottle. These are just a few of writer Caspar Henderson’s favorite sounds. In A Book of Noises, Henderson invites readers to use their ears a little better—to tune in to the world in all its surprising noisiness. Describing sounds from around the natural and human world, the forty-eight essays that make up A Book of Noises are a celebration of all things “auraculous.” Henderson calls on his characteristic curiosity to explore sounds related to humans (anthropophony), other life (biophony), the planet (geophony), and space (cosmophony). Henderson finds the beauty in everyday sounds, like the ringing of a bell, the buzz of a bee, or the “earworm” songs that get stuck in our heads. A Book of Noises also explores the marvelous, miraculous sounds we may never get the chance to hear, like the deep boom of a volcano or the quiet, rustling sound of the Northern Lights. A Book of Noises will teach readers to really listen to the sounds of the world around them, to broaden and deepen their appreciation of the humans, animals, rocks, and trees simultaneously broadcasting across the whole spectrum of sentience.

Notes on the Auraculous

A Book of Noises

"We live in a world that is known, every corner thoroughly explored.  But has this knowledge cost us the ability to wonder?  Wonder, Caspar Henderson argues, is at its most supremely valuable in just such a world because it reaffirms our humanity and gives us hope for the future.  That's the power of wonder, and that's what we should aim to cultivate in our lives.  But what are the wonders of the modern world?  Henderson's brilliant exploration borrows from the form of one of the oldest and most widely known sources of wonder: maps.  Large detailed mappae mundi invited people in medieval Europe to vividly imagine places and possibilities they had never seen before: manticores with the head of a man, the body of a lion, and the stinging tail of a scorpion; tribes of one-eyed men who fought griffins for diamonds; and fearsome Scythian warriors who drank the blood of their enemies from their skulls.  As outlandish as these maps and the stories that went with them sound to us today, Henderson argues that our views of the world today are sometimes no less incomplete or misleading.  Scientists are only beginning to map the human brain, for example, revealing it as vastly more complex than any computer we can conceive.  Our current understanding of physical reality is woefully incomplete.  [This book] explores these and other realms of the wonderful, in different times and cultures and in the present day, taking readers from Aboriginal Australian landscapes to sacred sites in Great Britain, all the while keeping in sight questions such as the cognitive basis of wonder and the relationship between wonder, science, and the arts.  Beautifully illustrated and written with wit and moral complexity, this sequel to The Book of Barely Imagined Beings is a fascinating account of the power of wonder and an unforgettable meditation on its importance to our future."--Amazon.com.

a journey in search of modern marvels

A new map of wonders

Book of Barely Imagined Beings

Hayal Bile Edemeyecegimiz Varliklar Kitabi

Il libro degli esseri a malapena immaginati

"A Little Book of Noises gathers together sounds from the cosmos, the natural world, the human world, and the invented world, as well as containing pockets of silence. From the vast sound of sand in the desert to the tuneful warble of a songbird, from the meditative resonance of a temple bell to the improvisational melodies of jazz, this is a celebration of all things "auraculous," or "ear marvelous." Sound shapes our world in invisible but significant ways, and writer Caspar Henderson brings his characteristic curiosity and knowledge to the subject to take us on an exhilarating journey to examine noise related to humans (anthropophony), other life (biophony), our planet (geophony), and space (cosmophony)"--

Anhand von sieben wahren Wundern führt uns Caspar Henderson in Mikrokosmen und Universen, die zum Staunen einladen und ein tieferes Verständnis erlauben, ohne uns den Zauber zu nehmen. Neugier ist die Voraussetzung für alles Wissen, vielleicht sogar Grundlage des Menschseins. Die Fähigkeit zum Staunen verbindet uns alle. Und je mehr wir über die Welt wissen, desto mehr vermag sie uns zu begeistern, wie Hendersons brillante Berichte aus den Wissenschaften beweisen: Photonen etwa haben weder Masse noch Ladung, können nicht zum Stillstand kommen, dafür aber die Form wechseln. Und bis heute ist nicht gänzlich geklärt, wie sie sich eigentlich mit Lichtgeschwindigkeit fortbewegen können. Das Herz wiederum ist der variantenreichste Muskel, den die Natur hervorgebracht hat – mehr als tausend Mal schlägt ein Kolibriherz pro Minute, nur zwei Mal das Herz einer Muschel. Doch der Zauber dieses lange unerforschten Organs verliert sich auch durch seine Ergründung nicht. Ähnlich verhält es sich mit dem Gehirn, das weitaus komplexer ist als jeder Rechner, der bisher gebaut wurde, und das wir gerade erst zu verstehen beginnen. Mit seiner Karte der Weltwunder nimmt uns Caspar Henderson mit auf eine aufregende Reise in die Philosophie, Geschichte, Kunst, Religion, Naturwissenschaften und Technologie, um uns das Staunen als Möglichkeit der Weltwahrnehmung und Haltung zurückzugeben.

Caspar Henderson

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