Life and Other Problems

What is life? asks Max Kestner in the introduction to his expansive reflection on the greatest mysteries of the universe. He looks for answers that would shed light on why we exist at all in philosophy, biology and quantum physics. In addition to his curiosity, he is guided by an incident from Copenhagen Zoo that took place 10 years ago. At the time, its director had a healthy giraffe killed because it was no longer needed as part of an international breeding program. The fact that so many people around the world have expressed sympathy for the “unnecessary” animal suggests that we share much more with the world around us, including invisible microbes, than we admit, according to Kestner. “I could have made a story about how media works and how it [the story] exploded in the media but to me it was the scientific and philosophical questions that I felt were there at the time, but weren’t really answered.” — Max Kestner