What is life What is water What is sound In Sounding the Limits of Life anthropologist Stefan Helmreich investigates how contemporary scientists biologists oceanographers and audio engineers are redefining these crucial concepts Life water and sound are phenomena at once empirical and abstract material and formal scientific and social In the age of synthetic biology rising sea levels and new technologies of listening these phenomena stretch toward their conceptual snapping points breaching the boundaries between the natural cultural and virtual Through examinations of the computational life sciences marine biology astrobiology acoustics and more Helmreich follows scientists to the limits of these categories Along the way he offers critical accounts of such other than human entities as digital life forms microbes coral reefs whales seawater extraterrestrials tsunamis seashells and bionic cochlea He develops a new notion of sounding as investigating fathoming listening to describe the form of inquiry appropriate for tracking meanings and practices of the biological aquatic and sonic in a time of global change and climate crisis Sounding the Limits of Life shows that life water and sound no longer mean what they once did and that what count as their essential natures are under dynamic revision