Just as Captain Nemo in Jules Verne’s “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” was attempting to explore the white spots on the world map so Rupert Riedl, a world-renowned marine biologist, originally set out to explore the oceans – both the real and imaginary ones.

This very drive for the knowledge to reveal the deepest secrets of our world and our existence found the young zoologist on the shores of Sicily.

His straightforward at times humorous, at times thoughtful observations are the foundations for his subsequent scientific discoveries and expeditions.

After 50 years of dedicated scientific work Rupert Riedl now offers answers and solutions to those questions which originally motivated him. In this book’s twelve chapters, Riedl takes us poetically through age old questions of science, metaphysics, consciousness, reason, and community life. His “travels in the sun and into the night” take the author along the shores up to “the light over the land”, and to the reassuring result of all his searching – that all one needs is to go with open eyes through an unknown world to find the answers to all of the questions about our human existence and the universe.

About the author:

Rupert Riedl was born in 1925.

He read biology followed by oceanography studies in California, Florida and Puerto Rico.

In 1968 he took up the post of Professor of Zoology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA, where he was bestowed with that institution’s highest title of Kenan Professor of Zoology.

He returned to Vienna in 1971 and became head of the Institute of Zoology at the University of Vienna in 1973.

After retiring from his academic post he founded the Konrad-Lorenz-Institute for Evolutionary and Cognitive Research and in 2002 established the “Club of Vienna”.

Prior publications include: “Die Ordnung des Lebendigen” (The Order of Life) 1975; “Biologie der Erkenntnis” (The Biology of Knowledge) 1980; “Ursachen des Wachstums” (Reasons for Growth) 1996