Bernhard Kegel is one of Germany's most renowned science writers. Born in Berlin in 1953, he studied biology and chemistry at Freie Universität and received his doctorate in natural sciences from TU Berlin in 1991.

Afterwards, he led a zoological inventory of urban nature reserves for the Berlin Senate. At the same time, he began writing and has worked as a freelance journalist since 1996. In 1993, his novel "Wenzel's Mushroom" was published, followed by twelve more novels and non-fiction books to date, all of which deal with various aspects of biology and have been awarded several journalism prizes. In 2013 and 2015, he was the first author to be a fellow at the Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg in Bremen/Delmenhorst. His current books "The Nature of the Future" and "Extinct Animals" were both shortlisted for Science Book of the Year, both in Germany and Austria. In 2009, his book "Epigenetics - How Experience is Inherited" was one of the first on this now highly topical field of research and is now in its 13th edition.