Bioverse

BOOK REVIEW
Bioverse: How the Cellular World Contains the Secrets to Life’s Biggest Questions
by William B. Miller Jr. 2022

About the Author
William B. Miller, Jr. M.D., is a consultant and science writer specializing on the microbiome. After a career in practicing medicine, Dr. Miller became fascinated by evolution upon seeing Sue, a T-Rex skeleton housed in the Chicago Field Museum. Since then, Dr. Miller has become a leading expert in the field of evolutionary biology as the developer of Cognition-Based Evolution, publishing scores of peer-reviewed papers, hundreds of online articles, and books including The Microcosm Within.

About the Book
“With brilliant gems on every page, Bioverse is the story of our new scientific ’Era of the Cell,’ or should we say, era of the cognitive cell. Filled with the most up-to-date science on our cells and microbes, and placing it in deep philosophical and cultural context, Miller demonstrates the vast implications of the connectedness of all life on earth. Bioverse provides wisdom for understanding our identity as a superorganism, as well as the meaning of our human life.” – Jon Lieff MD, neuroscientist, neuropsychiatrist, former president of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry, and author of The Secret Language of Cells

“Stunning… Bioverse draws the reader into new and surprising aspects of the intelligence of microbial life. Miller has pioneered Cognition-Based Evolution as an alternative to orthodox evolutionary biology that is based almost entirely on blind natural selection. Readers will come to understand themselves better through learning how much we depend on the microbiome. Bioverse shows that every cell in our body exhibits natural intelligence.” – Denis Noble FRS, professor emeritus and co-director of Computational Physiology, University of Oxford, pioneer of systems biology, and author of The Music of Life

“Remarkable… Miller shows us that microbes are smart. Humans are smart, too, and his Bioverse takes readers on a fabulous ride from those first surprisingly intelligent unicellular species to us, touching on, well, almost everything along the way.” – Arthur S. Reber, PhD, author of The First Minds: Caterpillars, Karyotes, and Consciousness

For as long as humans have been on Earth, we have looked up to the stars for clues to our own existence. Medical doctor and evolutionary biologist William B. Miller, Jr. suggests that we may find more meaningful solutions at the end of a microscope rather than a telescope. Using powerful analogies and exacting science, Bioverse explores the wonders of the perpetual partnership between our personal cells and the microbial world, resulting in an entirely new view of our living planet.

To understand life in all its varieties, we must undertake to understand our cells. While the partnership between our cells and our microbes has largely been thought of as that of “host” and “guest,” Miller reveals the true partnership under which both our microbial fraction and our own personal cells conduct a life-long dialogue, redefining our traditional conceptions of intelligence and problem-solving. This radical new approach explains exactly how our human choices are centered within the same cellular rules that enable our cells to seamlessly sustain our lives.

We are now entering the “Era of the Cell,” a time in history during which medical and scientific innovations have spurred growth far beyond ever imagined by our ancestors. For the first time, we are not only building machines to enhance our lives but engineering living organisms to assist our futures. From the biological origins of evolution to the invention of the compound microscope by a Dutch lens maker in the 17th century, to new research that reveals surprising links between our microbiome and our moods and behavior, and surprising stories of the cellular world from the deepest oceans, wildest jungles, and outer reaches of our solar system, Miller introduces readers to a greater understanding of our impact on the planet and the world’s reciprocal impact on each of us.

By exploring the extent of our deeply integrated cellular world, Bioverse provides profound insights about ourselves, our health and well-being, our social systems, and our permanent relationship to the planet and the cosmos.