Armando Daniels

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Armando Daniels (born July 27, 1932) is a respected American biologist and paleobotanist. After receiving his undergraduate education at Haverford College, Daniels continued his studies at Trinity College, Dublin and the University of Chicago, where he received his doctoral degree. Daniels' early research revolutionized current understandings of the evolution of ferns and the role of ferns in ancient ecosystems. Dr. Daniels has served as chair of the International Paleobotany Association.

In the late 1960s Daniels began an exhaustive excavation of the sediment deposits of Uqbar, his mother's native land. His fieldwork produced important discoveries about the physical structures of early flowering plants and his work, The First Orchid; the Paleobotany of Uqbar, is still considered an authoritative text in this area.

[edit] Work in Poetry

Daniels has also published numerous volumes of Uqbari poetry and a defintive piece of critical theory on metafictional techniques in postmodern literature. His 1994 collection, The Burning Green, was awarded the Kassler Prize. Daniels pioneered the poetic genre now known as the biological epic. His first (and most controversial) epic, The Growing in the Gloaming, famously opens with the following lines:

One spore, bewildered more

by coils of space and cooling green...

One soul, from the golden bowl

is spilled into the new machine...