In this non-fiction popular scientific reader, I argue for a more honest debate about the limits of both our knowledge and our wealth, for a more truthful engagement with and respect for our fears concerning the future, for greater differentiation between growth and developmental processes, for a deeper understanding of uncertainty and the associated public management of risk, for greater modesty, humility and mindfulness of what we believe we truly know and are able to do, for bowing to our own inadequacy, fragility and the transience of our thought, and for greater consideration of the life sciences in times of personal and social transformation.