The term biophilia literally means 'love of life or living systems' and has been used by Edward O. Wilson, the father of sociobiology and a professor of entomology at Harvard University, to describe the connections that human beings subconsciously seek with the rest of life. We haven't always lived in urban environments. We were wild once. And that wild instinct is buried deep within us, resurfacing every time we immerse ourselves in the wildness of the natural world. The reality is that most of us now live in cities and are immersed in urban life. We have created unique environments for ourselves, with elaborate networks of roads and highways weaving between buildings and winding through landscapes. We have had such an influence on the structure of the environment that the vast expanse of cities and towns can be seen from space. There are few areas left on the planet where the mark of Homo sapiens urbanus is not evident, which means that there is little left o...