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The Web of Life:
A New Scientific Understanding
of Living Systems

Thursday, January 18th, 2007		 The Center for Ecoliteracy
is dedicated to education for sustainable living.
The Center for Ecoliteracy, founded in 1995, is a public foundation that supports a grantmaking program for educational organizations and school communities; convenes networks of its grantees; sponsors projects consistent with its mission; administers donor-advised funds; and manages a publishing imprint, Learning in the Real World®.
Scientists are challenging conventional views of evolution and the organization of living systems and developing new theories with revolutionary philosophical and social implications.
Dr. Fritof
Capra

Center for Ecoliteracy

Dr. Capra is the author of three international bestsellers, The Tao of Physics (1975), The Turning Point (1982), Uncommon Wisdom (1988). He coauthored Green Politics (1984), Belonging to the Universe (1991), and EcoManagement (1993), and coedited Steering Business Toward Sustainability (1995). His most recent book, The Hidden Connections, was published in 2002.

After receiving his Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the University of Vienna in 1966, Capra did research in particle physics at the University of Paris (1966-68), the University of California at Santa Cruz (1968-70), the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (1970), Imperial College, University of London (1971-74), and the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory at the University of California (1975-88). He also taught at U.C. Santa Cruz, U.C. Berkeley, and San Francisco State University.

In addition to his research in physics and systems theory, Capra has been engaged in a systematic examination of the philosophical and social implications of contemporary science for the past 30 years. His books on this subject have been acclaimed internationally, and he has lectured widely to lay and professional audiences in Europe, Asia, and North and South America.

Capra has been the focus of over 50 television interviews, documentaries, and talk shows in Europe, the United States, Brazil, Argentina, and Japan, and has been featured in major newspapers and magazines internationally. He was the first subject of the BBC's new documentary series "Beautiful Minds" (2002).

Fritjof Capra lives in Berkeley with his wife and daughter.
The vitality and accessibility of Fritjof Capra's ideas have made him perhaps the most eloquent spokesperson of the latest findings emerging at the frontiers of scientific, social, and philosophical thought. In his international bestsellers The Tao of Physics and The Turning Point, he juxtaposed physics and mysticism to define a new vision of reality.

In The Web of Life, Capra takes yet another giant step, setting forth a new scientific language to describe interrelationships and interdependence of psychological, biological, physical, social, and cultural phenomena--the "web of life."

Fritjof Capra has been at the forefront of this revolution. In The Web of Life, Capra offers a brilliant synthesis of such recent scientific breakthroughs as the theory of complexity, Gaia theory, chaos theory, and other explanations of the properties of organisms, social systems, and ecosystems.

Capra's surprising findings stand in stark contrast to accepted paradigms of mechanism and Darwinism and provide an extraordinary new foundation for ecological policies that will allow us to build and sustain communities without diminishing the opportunities for future generations.


Capra also co-wrote the screenplay for Mindwalk (1990), a film based on his books that starred Liv Ullmann, Sam Waterston, and John Heard, and was created and directed by his brother, Bernt Capra.

In this widely acclaimed film, set on the impressive island-abbey of Mont Saint Michel in France, Liv Ullmann, Sam Waterston, and John Heard portray very dissimilar vacationers caught up in a spontaneous and life-affirming sweep of self-expression and new ideas.

MindWalk played in numerous theaters in the United States and has been shown repeatedly on cable television. It had a record run for over two years in a matinee theater in Los Angeles.