Is human perception of the vibrant, living world around us the definitive window on objective reality that we imagine it to be? What about the myriad exchanges that lie beyond the limits of our abilities to see, hear, and feel them? What forces underlie the miracles of a flower-pollinating bee or a stirring musical symphony? This book charts an exercise in reframing the understanding of life as a multidimensional web of dynamic, perpetual exchanges. Drawing on examples from the subatomic scale to the astronomical, from the objectivity of mathematical and scientific analyses to a highly personal search for coherent humanist meaning, the author makes an overwhelmingly convincing case for how the simplest exchanges ultimately lead to the emergence of novelty and the complex beauty of precious life in all its forms.
In accessible prose, this wide-ranging celebration of life probes the mystery of how we got here. It acknowledges the limits of scientific methodology in furthering our understanding of ourselves and the world around us, and reminds us that we are all part of something bigger that will continue to evolve after we have returned to dust.

Francis Waldvogel is a retired professor of medicine. An influential figure in the Swiss academic system, he directed the department of internal medicine at the Hôpitaux Universitaires de Genève and served as president of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology ETHZ (Zurich) and EPFL (Lausanne) and vice president of the Swiss Science and Technology Council. After mandatory retirement from public positions in 2004 he cofounded the World Knowledge Dialogue, an international conference platform to promote dialogue across academic disciplines rooted in the so-called hard and soft sciences. More recently he has presided the Novartis Venture Fund and been active in the development of numerous humanitarian, social, and financing initiatives.

An earlier version of this material was released in French by Éditions Odile Jacob in 2020 under the title Tableau de la vie. The subject matter has been substantially revised and translated into English as a collaboration between the author and his colleague Moira Cockell, a retired molecular biologist. 

1. Cover Page
2. Title Page
3. Copyright Page
4. Prologue - A voyage to the land of exchange
   1. Exchange and emergence
   2. Zooming in, zooming out…
   3. Community trust
   4. Existence is exchange
5. Chapter 1 - Generous nature: exchanges and the emergence of life
   1. Life needs energy
   2. An interface for exchange: the cellular membrane
   3. Cellular metabolism: a busy factory
   4. What exactly is energy?
   5. Energy and entropy: the principles of thermodynamics apply to the living cell
   6. Skillful energy management: the role of ATP
   7. A virtual journey to the centre of the cell: exchanges and emergence everywhere
   8. Genetic exchanges: mixing favours diversity
   9. The unfathomable mystery of life
6. Chapter 2 - Dialogues of life: epigenesis, symbiosis and homeostasis
   1. Our genes talk with our environment: epigenesis
   2. When two species marry: symbiosis
   3. Exchanges between organs: homeostasis
   4. The living world is a world of constant exchanges
7. Chapter 3 - Exchanges in the realm of the vanishingly small: from biochemistry to the subatomic universe
   1. Atomic scale biochemistry
   2. Atoms: emptiness everywhere, and yet… is it really empty?
   3. Quantum mechanics 101
   4. May the force be with you
   5. The covalent chemical bond: simple, vital, beautiful
   6. The mystery of photosynthesis: a gift from the plant world
   7. Nature in a nutshell: from the bustling “void” of interacting particles to the splendid profusion of living things
8. Chapter 4 - How the power of language leads to the emergence of social ties
   1. How we communicate: the functions of language
   2. Small talk: a conversation that goes far beyond chatter
   3. Telling tales
9. Chapter 5 - Good vibrations and the emergence of enchantment: the musical experience
   1. The nature of musical exchanges
   2. Noise, sound, music equals physics, physiology, emotion
   3. Musicality emerges through the subtle transgression of the laws of physics
   4. Wealth of exchanges in music
10. Chapter 6 - Sharing knowledge: the driver of wisdom
    1. Science and technology: how are they linked?
    2. Today's knowledge, a fourfold historical convergence
    3. We have moved from a scientific revolution to an imbalance of nature-culture coevolution
    4. What comes next? We need a new generation of exchanges
11. Chapter 7 - Living together: a work in progress
    1. Anthills: a planetary conquest
    2. Many species live in communities
    3. From the world of ants to that of primates: emergence of moral qualities?
    4. Empathy, altruism and the asymmetry of exchanges
    5. A lesson in humility
12. Chapter 8 - Trust and monetary exchanges
    1. Barter systems
    2. Reciprocity and trust
    3. The lure of profit and the fear of risk
    4. The commodification of non-moneyable values and how to get out of it
13. Chapter 9 - Medicine today: thriving through emergences or losing its way?
    1. A science or an art?
    2. The doctor and the engineer: science nourishes and guides them both
    3. Science, technology, medicine: powerful allies
    4. Beating cancer: an allegiance of genetics, informatics and medicine
    5. Modern medicine risks losing its way
    6. There is hope: what might emerge on tomorrow's horizon?
14. Chapter 10 - Cold wars: when exchanges run dry
    1. Impoverishment of exchanges and loss of trust: the biology of social motivation
    2. The trust-reliability pair
    3. Disintegration of exchanges, and “de-emergence”
    4. Lessons from physics: their fundamental constants seal the nature of all exchanges
    5. Borders, ambivalent exchange systems
    6. Mediation and forgiveness
15. Chapter 11 - Swapping messages: from the messenger of Marathon to WhatsApp and info-streaming
    1. A short history of message transmission
    2. The mirage of the virtual world
    3. The infosphere revolution, how it relates to the biosphere and raises ethical considerations
    4. Negative emergences?
16. Chapter 12 - The whole is greater than the sum of its parts: emergence and complex systems
    1. Further examples of the emergence phenomenon
    2. Emergence, a distinctive property of complex systems
    3. A panoramic view of complex systems
    4. Discovery of three complex systems ruling our planet
    5. We are responsible for our negative emergences
17. Chapter 13 - The human condition: a collection of emergences emanating from countless exchanges
    1. Observation and experimentation: two ways of grasping the world
    2. Imperceptible exchanges make emergence visible
    3. The ubiquity of exchanges and network theory
    4. The beauty and curse of complex human systems
    5. A plea for a renewal of the humanist thought
    6. A brief synthesis: between determinism and chaos
18. Epilogue - Exchanges and the emergence of collective intelligence: a personal experience
    1. A matter of the heart
    2. A descent into hell
    3. From fragmentation of care to exchange of competences: emergence of a collective intelligence
    4. A day of resilience work
    5. Some closing remarks on interpersonal exchanges and the emergence of collective solicitude, resilience and intelligence
19. Bibliography
20. Contents