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Metamorphosis

A Natural and Human History
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Metamorphosis

By: Oren Harman
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About this listen

Why does a caterpillar become a butterfly, a tadpole a frog? Metamorphosis has always been one of biology's greatest miracles and toughest riddles.

Oren Harman takes us on an exhilarating journey through the creatures that metamorphose, from mayflies flitting above lazy summer rivers, to sea squirts in frigid ocean depths, to poison dart frogs on the steaming rainforest floor, exploring why it happens and what it means for us.

Travelling across two millennia, from Aristotle to Darwin to today, Oren Harman tells the untold story of metamorphosis, asking why it has obsessed and inspired us so profoundly. Along the way we meet poets, artists, philosophers, and a cast of scientists as colourful as the animals themselves: Sigmund Freud searching in vain for eel testicles, a Japanese zoologist singing Karaoke to a baby jellyfish. More recent, and less hare-brained, investigations have begun to reveal the hormones and genetic code that control metamorphosis. But the mystery and magic of this astonishing natural phenomenon remain.

Lyrical and intellectually omnivorous, Metamorphosis gets to the heart of question: why do we yearn for change but fear it too?

©2025 Oren Harman (P)2025 Hachette Book Group Audio

Critic Reviews

Metamorphosis is a soulful, genre-defying inquiry into the nature of transformation. Harman interweaves a history of scientific discovery with philosophy and memoir, introducing readers to astonishing characters and discoveries that bring us from the depths of the ocean to the furthest reaches of outer space. Metamorphosis asks difficult questions with great tenderness and deep humanity. It is a book full of wonder and revelation (Laura Redniss, author of Oak Flat)
A masterful tale of the long quest to understand one of the most wondrous and enigmatic phenomena in the animal world. Fueled by Oren Harman's boundless curiosity and rich storytelling, Metamorphosis roams the globe to meet fascinating creatures and equally colorful naturalists determined to penetrate their secrets. A thoroughly enjoyable and illuminating journey (Sean B. Carroll, author of THE SERENGETI RULES)
Stranger than the strangest imaginings of ancient mythology or science fiction are the metamorphoses undergone by the most unprepossessing of organisms: the immortal medusa, the starfish that is simultaneously child and adult, the axolotl in which the parent is the child to its offspring. Oren Harman weaves together science, history, philosophy, and the musings of a parent-to-be in this beautiful book about the twists and turns in the plot of life (Lorraine Daston, author of OBJECTIVITY)
Inspired by history, language, and biology, Oren Harman explores a wonderland of animal lifecycles to tell a truly fascinating tale of transformations in body and identity. His story culminates in the growth of a human child and asks how is it possible to remain ourselves while changing all the time? A book to treasure (Janet Browne, Harvard University, author of CHARLES DARWIN: A BIOGRAPHY)

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