Power of Life

by Jessica Riskin

Riverhead Books · 2026 · 496 pages

This biography resurrects the story of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, a scientist whose early theory of evolution challenged the prevailing view of life as static and passive. Lamarck argued that organisms actively shape their own development, an idea that was ridiculed and suppressed for centuries but is now being reevaluated. Delve into the thrilling intellectual battles and the surprisingly relevant implications of his work for understanding agency in the natural world.

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Scientists

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