"Writing is a joy for me. It's how I integrate my thinking and distill my experiences with life."
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As an ethics scholar, Rosalyn W. Berne has published three academic books:
Creating Life from Life: Biotechnology and Science Fiction (SF short stories used to illuminate questions of ethics, as paired with varied scientific papers)
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Nanotalk: Conversations with Scientists and Engineers about Ethics, Meaning, and Belief in the Development of Nanotechnology
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Animals, Ethics and Engineering (forthcoming, summer, 2025)
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She's also authored books in the genres of science fiction, creative and literary non-fiction, all with a bent towards ethical inquiry.
When the metaverse is well established and in use, we’ll be dealing with the same kinds of challenges we have today with AI and social media, only more profoundly so, because the devices will be embedded in our bodies and the perceived world will be filtered through our digitally influenced minds.
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— Rosalyn W. Berne, PhD
Animals, Ethics and Engineering
Animals, Ethics, and Engineering: Intersections and Implications is a seminal work that explores the intricate relationship between technology, ethics, and the welfare of non-human animals. Edited by Rosalyn W. Berne, this volume brings together leading scholars and practitioners to examine the ethical responsibilities inherent in technological progress and its impact on animal well-being.
Amazon
Routledge
“This ambitious and groundbreaking volume marks the arrival of an ‘animal turn’ in engineering ethics. Amid growing awareness for how non-human animals are inextricably bound up with the fate of our ever-more engineered planet, Animals, Ethics, and Engineering weaves together a rich, interdisciplinary tapestry of theoretical and applied perspectives while giving voice to diverse species and ecosystems. This must-read collection is at the leading edge of STEM ethics.”
— Prof. Brent K. Jesiek, Purdue University, USA
When the Horses Whisper
When the Horses Whisper shows the capacity of horses to help us heal the human heart. It expresses in human language what horses have to say when given the chance to speak. It is a story about the bond between horse and human, and the communication made possible when the bond is based on love. Conversations with fifteen horses, most of whom live and work in Costa Rica, are featured along with their photographs, capturing them as individual beings in service to humans on a shared evolutionary journey. This journey amounts to the remembering of our whole selves in the wholeness of creation, especially the parts we split off, deny, and place in shadow because they are too painful. Horses, as the book shows, can help us see these lost parts, and call forth our courage to reclaim them. When the Horses Whisper recounts the equine healing work that helped the author and others in reclaiming their authentic selves This book is testimony to the power of horses and equine healing work in transforming life’s losses into a deeper human wholeness and a further communion with the non-human world.
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Equus Film Festival Book Awardee
1st place, literary non-fiction, 2017
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Living Now Book Award, Silver Medal, 2016
"When the Horses Whisper, you can listen! Read Rosalyn Berne."
Rita Mae Brown, MFH, author of the Mrs. Murphy mystery series, and the Sneaky Pie Brown mystery series
"This book is a gift to all of us who love horses."
Nancy Coyne, M.D., Psychiatrist, Equine facilitated psychotherapy
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When the Horses Whisper shows the capacity of horses to help us heal the human heart. It expresses in human language what horses have to say when given the chance to speak. It is a story about the sacred bond between us, and the communication made possible when the horse-human relationship is based on love. Conversations with fifteen horses, most who live and work in Costa Rica, are featured along with their photographs, capturing them as individual beings in service to humans on a shared evolutionary journey. This journey amounts to the
"remembering" of our whole selves in the wholeness of creation, especially the parts we split off, deny, and place in shadow because they are too painful to deal with. Horses, as the book shows, can help us see these lost parts, and call forth our courage to reclaim them. For the author, these included the loss of a newborn daughter, the mental illness of an adult son, letting go of a thirty-year mar-riage, and childhood sexual abuse. The story recounts the equine healing work that helped in reclaiming her authentic self. This book is testimony to the power of horses and equine healing work in transforming life's losses into a deeper human wholeness and a further communion with the non-human world.
Waking to BeautyNautilus Books Silver Award, 2017
Waking to Beauty
In Waking to Beauty, Rosalyn W. Berne explores the extraordinary experiences that have shaped her spiritual journey. This book follows When the Horses Whisper, which details the author's capacity to “hear” and speak with horses, an unexpected gift that changed her understanding of who we are as human beings, in our connection to other beings. Waking to Beauty considers the early childhood origins of this capacity, and shares the realizations that have flowed from this gift. This journey moved her from an external orientation, with a theistic God dwelling “somewhere out there,” to experiencing the divine as present within us and with our fellow creatures.
The crux of the book centers on Rosalyn's encounters with a mare named Beauty, which led her to a profound experience of God dwelling with us here on Earth. The new vision of spiritual evolution that flowed from these encounters opens profound possibilities for humanity, in its interdependence with other living species as well as the earth itself. Beauty makes it clear that human existence is in a precarious state, and that humans need to change in order to survive. But why would anyone take a horse's message seriously? Reading this book may help to provide an answer to that question.
Nanotalk
Thanks to the openness of 35 research scientists and engineers, and a “Career Award” from the National Science Foundation, a five-year research project culminated in this book.
It’s difficult to determine where nanotechnology is leading, what its pursuit will mean, and how it may affect human and other forms of life. Nevertheless, its research and development are moving briskly into that unknown. It has been suggested that rapid movement towards ‘who knows where’ is endemic to all technological development; that its researchers pursue it for curiosity and enjoyment, without knowing the consequences, believing that their efforts will be beneficial. Further, that the enthusiasm for development comes with no malicious intent but rather from simple ignorance. Contrary to that commonly held perception about the collective pursuit of technological development, there are individual research scientists and engineers who are quite willing to reflect on the meaning of their work in nanotechnology. Nanotalk is a book of conversations and explorations with thirty five such nano-research scientists and engineers who share their ideas, experiences, perceptions, and beliefs about their work, humanity, nature, change, and the future of the world with nanotechnology. Precisely because of the unknowable nature of nanotechnology research and development, conscientious foresight and ethical reflection are warranted every step of the way. Not only do nanotechnology research and development represent enormous financial commitments, but they also require a profound leap of faith regarding its possible outcomes. Using these conversations as the basis of reflection and deliberation, the author explores the possible significance of nanotechnology to humanity and how it might be pursued conscientiously and ethically.
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Barnes & Noble
One of the wonders of nanotechnology used in medicine is targeted delivery of therapeutics— more precision and greater control. As we succeed in gaining more and more control, let’s take care to remember the importance of autonomy, and a person’s right to decide for themselves.​
— Rosalyn W. Berne, PhD, Anne Shirley Carter Olsson Professor of Applied Ethics, School of Engineering, UVA
Creating Life from Life:
Biotechnology and Science Fiction
This book melds essays on biotechnology written by scientists into science fiction stories. It opens a conversation about the morality of what we may one day be, and what it may mean to be human as our biotechnological endeavors continue to evolve. The biotechnology "revolution," launched on a global scale many decades ago, has taken a direct course toward re-creating life. Yet there are still many choices to be made in shaping the future that it may one day make possible. The book motivates readers toward deep reflection and continual discourse, which is essential if biotechnology is to evolve in ethical, meaningful, and sustainable ways.
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What a remarkable project this was, collaborating with research scientists to craft SF stories around their academic writings, and with contributing SF writers.
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— Rosalyn W. Berne, PhD, Anne Shirley Carter Olsson Professor of Applied Ethics, School of Engineering, UVA