Book Description (from the publisher)
What is Death?

They are the questions that have challenged philosophers, theologians, artists, and ordinary human beings for millennia: Why are we born only to die? Does death have meaning? What happens to our "selves" after we die? In What Is Death?, biologist Tyler Volk considers these piercing questions from a unique perspective that allows him to offer readers alternatives to many traditional religious explanations.

Inspired by his own confrontation with mysterious neurological problems, Volk embarks on a personal exploration of the meaning of death and its powerful implications about the meaning of life. The answers–and further questions–that he discovers by asking "What is death?" are surprising, diverse, uplifting, and extraordinarily life-affirming.

What Is Death? examines the phenomenon of death from organic, personal, and social points of view. It sheds light upon the life spans of creatures and the role of cell death in bodily health; contemplates the links among the personal confrontation with death, our brain, and consciousness; and probes the customs and rituals that surround death in various cultures.

By illustrating how death is integral to life at every scale, What Is Death? will enable those who embrace its vision to live more vigorous, loving, and meaningful lives. This engrossing look into the mysteries of existence offers immensely rewarding reading to anyone who seeks a deeper understanding of the one universal fact of life: death.

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