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How does a Venus flytrap know when to snap shut? Can it feel an insect's spindly legs? How do flowers know when it's spring? Can they actually remember the weather? And do they care if you play them Led Zeppelin or Bach? ÿÿÿÿÿ From Darwin's early fascination with stems and vines to Little Shop of Horrors, we have always marveled at plant diversity and form. Now, in What a Plant Knows, the renowned biologist Daniel Chamovitz presents an intriguing and refreshing look at how plants experience the world. Highlighting the latest research in plant science, he takes us into the lives of different types of plants, and draws parallels with the human senses to reveal that we have much more in common with sunflowers and oak trees than we may realize. He explains how a willow knows when its neighbors have been taken over by a group of hungry beetles, and why an avocado will ripen in a paper bag with a banana (it's the pheromones). He shows how plants know up from down, and settles the debate, once and for all, over whether or not plants appreciate that music you've been playing. Covering touch, sound, smell, sight, and even memory, Chamovitz considers whether it's too much to ask if plants are aware.ÿ
ÿÿÿÿ What a Plant Knows is a rare inside look at what life is really like for the grass we walk on, the flowers we sniff, and the trees we climb. It is a true field guide to the senses for science buffs and green thumbs, and for anyone who seeks a greater understanding of our place in nature.
One of Amazon's Ten Best Science & Math Books of 2012
One of "Chicago Tribune"'s Favorite Books of 2012
A "Los Angeles Times" 2012 Summer Reading Selection
"Of the dozens of books I read in 2012, several stand out. But there's one I keep coming back to, thumbing through it, letting people know about it. It's Daniel Chamovitz's "What A Plant Knows: A Field Guide to the Senses . . . "It's incredibly interesting material, presented in an entertaining and fun way -- in about only 140 pages. "What A Plant Knows" is a nice fit on my shelf of gardening books -- and that's where it will stay. Although I've recommended the book to several people, I've ungraciously not let them borrow my copy. I fear I won't get it back." --"Chicago Tribune"
"The reader...will find enough absorbing science to concede that plants continue to inspire and amaze us. It's time, as Joni Mitchell sang at Woodstock, 'to get ourselves back to the garden' and take a closer look at plants." --"The Wall Street Journal
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"This elegantly written account of plant biology will change the way you see your garden...Chamovitz lets us see plants in a new light, one which reveals their true wonder." --"The Guardian"
"Thick with eccentric plant experiments and astonishing plant science." --"Sunday Times" (UK)
"Plants may be brainless, eyeless and devoid of senses as we know them, but they have a rudimentary 'awareness', says biologist Daniel Chamovitz. In this beautiful reframing of the botanical, he reveals the extent and kind of that awareness through a bumper crop of research." --"Nature
""For everyone who has wondered at "Mimosa," the suddenly snapping Venus flytrap or the way a sunflower's head unerringly turns to follow the sun, Daniel Chamovitz has written the perfect book." --"American Scientist
""[A] fascinating inside look at what a plant's life is like, and a new lens on our own place in nature." --Maria Popova, "Brain Pickings
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"Verdict: l
ISBN: 9780374288730
ISBN-10: 0374288739
Audience:
General
Format:
Hardcover
Language:
English
Number Of Pages: 192
Published: 22nd May 2012
Dimensions (cm): 21.0 x 14.0
x 2.3
Weight (kg): 0.308
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