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fornia's review against another edition
3.0
surprisingly entertaining and readable, 100% would recommend for any fiction-lovers looking to shake up their reading habits
nithuir's review against another edition
3.0
Shorter than I expected. I feel like much of the actual "plant" information I've already read in other books, but I would have liked for the author to have expanded more about technological inspiration from plants.
plantgal_jill's review against another edition
4.0
This one is definitely more technical than The Incredible Journey of Plants. A really interesting overview of recent research in plant neurobiology. That's right: plant brains.
bumblebee's review
quite disappointing, this book has a lot of interesting information about plants, but the author also goes on long unscientific tangents about the nature of humanity that have very little to do with plants and are in some cases blatantly incorrect
0ltsu's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
5.0
ashcomb's review against another edition
5.0
I start by saying that if you read one fact book this year, read this one. It is inspirational and it makes you see the world differently. Bold statements, I know, but there is something special about this book. It goes beyond the facts. It is the passion for plants and what we can learn by studying them that seeps through every page. I'm in awe with this book. Okay, I'm partial. I'm a nature nut. But to be honest, so should you be too. It is the foundation we live on. Without plants and agriculture, we wouldn't be standing here (or most probably sitting here.)
Stefano Mancuso is a neurobiologist, and in this book, he leads the reader to see the world through plants, starting from plants having memories despite having no brain like ours, moving to the need to adapt and defend against attackers without the ability to move like we humans do; to the fact that many plants have tricked us into cultivating them, hiding in the fields and mimicking to look like something else (for example rye, a big deal where I come from and to find out it was a weed initially and now we praise it being healthier than wheat); to the plant structure that is democratic (Mancuso goes as far as to argue that nature is, that we humans mistake it to be hierarchical, he uses bees as an example); to asking questions are plants more cunning than we give them credit for, do they happen to enslave humans and other animals through chemicals; to humans using their structure to model our houses (there is and was a lot to learn, the structure abilities of Victoria Amazonica has inspired from buildings to art and created passion like no other, also how about technology and algorithms, should they mimic how plants do their business, how they store memory and information and how loosing one part won't be a catastrophe as it often is with animals); to the trouble of running out freshwater and asking if we could use salt water instead; to pondering about other food shortages and finally to the future of plants and how we can go exit and how they might help us with space travel. (Sorry about this lengthy recap. But I wanted you to get the idea. There is a lot of information tossed in the air and so much to grasp and run with.)
I hope you understand why I'm in love with this book. It made me see the world through plants, something which, despite appreciating and caring for them, I have overlooked as simple beings. I have to say I am ashamed. This is why I read fact books to expand my mind, to see the world past the blinders I have put to appreciate possibilities. And you can ignore all my blabbering and just concentrate on facts. This is a short yet informative book, well written and comprehensible, but doesn't talk down on the reader. It is passionate, and the book branches to bee colonies and human decision making, which gives it additional salt. About those bee colonies, I can never look at bees the same ever again after this book. Their dancing holds more information and communication that I thought there to be. Nothing dirty, just democracy and information exchange at work.
But! Now comes the inevitable but. The book jumps around from one subject to another, never delivering what it promises, and that is scientific proof for plant intelligence. The argumentation is at best one research example to prove the point and then moving on quickly to seem like a plausible argumentation what is said holds true. It never finishes the thought through or show the whole picture or give a counter-argument to the facts laid on the pages. As much I found the book inspirational, eye-opening, and altering my being, taking the arguments as a general theory or proof isn't possible. Yet, I still love this book. That is because for lighting my curiosity towards plant intelligence, towards all the possibilities I have overlooked in the world. So while I hope you read this book, I want you to keep in mind that this is not enough for a coherent thesis or proof of revolutionary intelligence, as the book proposes. There needs to be more. A thesis needs the dwell on the facts and counter-arguments. But I believe that wasn't the book's point, it was to kindle a fire in the mere readers like me and see plants in a new light. That it did.
Thank you for reading, have a plantlicious day!
Stefano Mancuso is a neurobiologist, and in this book, he leads the reader to see the world through plants, starting from plants having memories despite having no brain like ours, moving to the need to adapt and defend against attackers without the ability to move like we humans do; to the fact that many plants have tricked us into cultivating them, hiding in the fields and mimicking to look like something else (for example rye, a big deal where I come from and to find out it was a weed initially and now we praise it being healthier than wheat); to the plant structure that is democratic (Mancuso goes as far as to argue that nature is, that we humans mistake it to be hierarchical, he uses bees as an example); to asking questions are plants more cunning than we give them credit for, do they happen to enslave humans and other animals through chemicals; to humans using their structure to model our houses (there is and was a lot to learn, the structure abilities of Victoria Amazonica has inspired from buildings to art and created passion like no other, also how about technology and algorithms, should they mimic how plants do their business, how they store memory and information and how loosing one part won't be a catastrophe as it often is with animals); to the trouble of running out freshwater and asking if we could use salt water instead; to pondering about other food shortages and finally to the future of plants and how we can go exit and how they might help us with space travel. (Sorry about this lengthy recap. But I wanted you to get the idea. There is a lot of information tossed in the air and so much to grasp and run with.)
I hope you understand why I'm in love with this book. It made me see the world through plants, something which, despite appreciating and caring for them, I have overlooked as simple beings. I have to say I am ashamed. This is why I read fact books to expand my mind, to see the world past the blinders I have put to appreciate possibilities. And you can ignore all my blabbering and just concentrate on facts. This is a short yet informative book, well written and comprehensible, but doesn't talk down on the reader. It is passionate, and the book branches to bee colonies and human decision making, which gives it additional salt. About those bee colonies, I can never look at bees the same ever again after this book. Their dancing holds more information and communication that I thought there to be. Nothing dirty, just democracy and information exchange at work.
But! Now comes the inevitable but. The book jumps around from one subject to another, never delivering what it promises, and that is scientific proof for plant intelligence. The argumentation is at best one research example to prove the point and then moving on quickly to seem like a plausible argumentation what is said holds true. It never finishes the thought through or show the whole picture or give a counter-argument to the facts laid on the pages. As much I found the book inspirational, eye-opening, and altering my being, taking the arguments as a general theory or proof isn't possible. Yet, I still love this book. That is because for lighting my curiosity towards plant intelligence, towards all the possibilities I have overlooked in the world. So while I hope you read this book, I want you to keep in mind that this is not enough for a coherent thesis or proof of revolutionary intelligence, as the book proposes. There needs to be more. A thesis needs the dwell on the facts and counter-arguments. But I believe that wasn't the book's point, it was to kindle a fire in the mere readers like me and see plants in a new light. That it did.
Thank you for reading, have a plantlicious day!
dancarey_404's review
4.0
The first half of this book, in particular, may profoundly change the way you look at plants. If Mancuso's academic credentials were not so sterling, I would have doubted some of the amazing things he describes. Highly, highly recommended.
bekahbeth's review against another edition
5.0
I thoroughly enjoyed this engaging work by a new favorite botanist and am looking forward to reading more soon.
Sometimes it reads like a radical political treatise: “Not only are oligarchies rare, but imagined hierarchies and the so-called law of the jungle is trite nonsense. What is more relevant is that similar structures do not work well. In nature, large, distributed organizations without control centers are always the most efficient.... The idea that democracy is an institution against nature therefore remains just one of the more seductive lies invented by man to justify his (unnatural) thirst for individual power.... ‘Democratic decisions are more beneficial primarily because they tend to produce less extreme decisions.’”
Among the book’s most effective points/reminders is how different plants are from animals in mostly being fixed by their roots to one spot and therefore how important a design inspiration they could be and are. Prepare to be inspired!
Sometimes it reads like a radical political treatise: “Not only are oligarchies rare, but imagined hierarchies and the so-called law of the jungle is trite nonsense. What is more relevant is that similar structures do not work well. In nature, large, distributed organizations without control centers are always the most efficient.... The idea that democracy is an institution against nature therefore remains just one of the more seductive lies invented by man to justify his (unnatural) thirst for individual power.... ‘Democratic decisions are more beneficial primarily because they tend to produce less extreme decisions.’”
Among the book’s most effective points/reminders is how different plants are from animals in mostly being fixed by their roots to one spot and therefore how important a design inspiration they could be and are. Prepare to be inspired!