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The Miraculous from the Material: Understanding the Wonders of Nature

Alan LightmanAlan Lightman
November 19, 2024
The Miraculous from the Material: Understanding the Wonders of Nature
Alan Lightman
Penguin Random House, 2024

Nature is capable of extraordinary phenomena. Standing in awe of those phenomena, we experience a feeling of connection to the cosmos. For acclaimed physicist and novelist Alan Lightman, just as remarkable is that all of what we see around us—soap bubbles, scarlet ibises, shooting stars—are made out of the same material stuff and obey the same rules and laws. This is what Lightman calls “spiritual materialism,” the belief that we can embrace spiritual experiences without letting go of our scientific worldview.

Pairing 36 beautiful, full-color photos evoking some of nature’s most awe-inspiring phenomena with accessible and lyrical personal essays, The Miraculous from the Material explores the fascinating science underlying the natural world. Why do rainbows make an arc? Why does a particular waterfall at Yosemite National Park sometimes glow like it’s on fire? How does a hummingbird fly? The world has so many things to marvel at—and the science is just as fascinating.

Lightman’s imagination travels from the world of atoms and molecules to the animal kingdom, from places like Ha Long Bay, Vietnam and the Grand Canyon out to the solar system and beyond, illuminating the majesty of the cosmos and the remarkable science behind it. The Miraculous from the Material is a stunning, soaring ode to the beauty and wonder around us, and the perfect holiday gift for photography aficionados, life-long learners, and admirers of the natural world.

For sale from Penguin Random House

Alan Lightman
Written by
Alan Lightman

Alan Lightman is a physicist, novelist, and essayist. He was educated at Princeton University and at the California Institute of Technology, where he received a Ph.D. in theoretical physics. Before coming to MIT, he was on the faculty of Harvard University. At MIT, Lightman was the first person to receive dual faculty appointments in science and in the humanities, and was John Burchard Professor of Humanities before becoming Professor of the Practice of the Humanities to allow more time for his writing. Lightman’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic,Granta, Harper's, Nautilus, the New Yorker, and the New York Review of Books, among other publications. His novel Einstein’s Dreams was an international bestseller and has been translated into thirty languages. His novel The Diagnosis was a finalist for the 2000 National Book Award in fiction. His most recent books are Screening Room: A Memoir of the South (2015), The Accidental Universe (2016), Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine (2018), In Praise of Wasting Time (2018), Three Flames (2019), Probable Impossibilities (2021), and The Transcendent Brain (2023). He is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has six honorary degrees. He is on-camera host of the public television series,
SEARCHING: Our Quest for Meaning in the Age of Science, which is based
on some of his books. Lightman is also the founder of the nonprofit Harpswell, which works to advance a new generation of women leaders in Southeast Asia.

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