Henry and his niece, Jane, are taking a walk one day when they come upon an old kitchen stove in a resident's garden. The stove seemingly disappears into the ground before their eyes. So begins nine unsettling conversations between Henry, Jane, and Henry's son in The Biological Misconception. The nature of observation is the fascinating subject of author and scientist Dick Mesland's narrative. How do we perceive the events that occur around us and how do we come to the conclusions about what we see? Is it a resulting projection or image of a completely unknown metaphysical reality or our conscious willing to see what we expect to see? The dialogues between Mesland's fictive characters serve as a springboard for the reader to engage in a monologue to reach logical conclusions about what we observe and how those observations are translated into our consciousness. The philosophical level at which we can formally speak about consciousness, and its possible roots, is also addressed in the characters' comments. Mesland's absorbing novel blends Gnostic manuscripts with implicit meanings that corroborate the logic conclusions the characters reach in their discussions.Bio:Dr. Dick Mesland is a retired cell biologist. Dr. Mesland has worked for the European Space Agency as a project scientist for Spacelab missions, the Eureka microgravity platform and Soviet unmanned recoverable satellites, and as a systems programmer for IBM. Dr. Mesland has published a book, Bewustzijn; de metafysische ruimte, Eburon, Delft in 2002. He has two daughters, three grandchildren and lives with his wife near Amsterdam, The Netherlands.