Nothing in the universe is more complex than life. Throughout the skies, in oceans, and across lands, life is endlessly on the move. In its myriad forms-from cells to human beings, social structures, and ecosystems-life is open-ended, evolving, unpredictable, yet adaptive and self-sustaining. Complexity theory addresses the mysteries that animate science, philosophy, and metaphysics: how this teeming array of existence, from the infinitesimal to the infinite, is in fact a seamless living whole and what our place, as conscious beings, is within it. Physician, scientist, and philosopher Neil Theise explores the profound implications of complexity theory, from the permeable boundaries of our bodies to the nature of consciousness. He takes us to the exhilarating frontiers of human knowledge and invites us into the expansive view of a universe that is dynamic, cohesive, and alive-a whole greater than the sum of its parts-and in the process restores wonder and meaning to our experience of the everyday.