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    What a Plant Knows: a field guide to the senses
    Unavailable
    What a Plant Knows: a field guide to the senses
    Unavailable
    What a Plant Knows: a field guide to the senses
    Ebook208 pages3 hours

    What a Plant Knows: a field guide to the senses

    By Daniel Chamovitz

    3.5/5

    ()

    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    About this ebook

    A captivating journey into the hidden lives of plants — from the colours they see to the schedules they keep.

    Join renowned biologist Daniel Chamovitz as he leads a beguiling exploration of how plants experience our shared Earth — in terms of sight, smell, touch, hearing, memory, and even awareness. Combining cutting-edge research with lively storytelling, he explains the intimate details of plant behaviour, from how a willow tree knows when its neighbours have been commandeered by an army of ravenous beetles to why an avocado ripens when you give it the company of a banana in a bag. And he settles the debate over whether the beloved basil on your kitchen windowsill cares whether you play Led Zeppelin or Bach.

    Thoroughly updated from root to leaf, this revised edition of the groundbreaking What a Plant Knows includes new revelations for green thumbs, science buffs, vegetarians, and nature lovers. This rare inside look at what life is really like for the grass we walk on, the flowers we sniff, and the trees we climb will surprise and delight you.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherScribe Publications
    Release dateJul 2, 2012
    ISBN9781921942778
    Unavailable
    What a Plant Knows: a field guide to the senses
    Author

    Daniel Chamovitz

    Daniel Chamovitz, Ph.D., is the director of the Manna Center for Plant Biosciences at Tel Aviv University. He has served as a visiting scientist at Yale University and at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and has lectured at universities around the world. His research has appeared in leading scientific journals. Chamovitz lives with his wife and three children in Hod HaSharon, Israel. He is the author of What a Plant Knows: A Field Guide to the Senses.

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    Reviews for What a Plant Knows

    3.5/5

    65 ratings4 reviews

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    • 2/5
      The book is ok, but it was showered with so much praise that I was expecting a lot more. The structure is formulaic and dumbed down considerably: first describe briefly how a human sense works (sight, hearing, touch, etc), then draw a parallel with how plants perceive their environment. Chapters are brief, very basic, lacking insight or speculation and they are mostly written based on 2-3 research papers each at the most. I was also particularly astonished to read, for the first time ever, an apology of Trofim Lysenko, who according to Chamovitz "ultimately saved wheat yields in his country". Really? I thought it was quite the opposite. I wish I could recommend this book as a good introduction to plant biology. Unfortunately I cannot.
    • 4/5
      Fascinating look at how plants process information about the world around them. Plants can't move, which means that they must be able to respond to their environment, which means they have to be able to sense the world around them. Chamovitz stays very down-to-earth, though, and book is very factual and he describes the research that led scientists to understand how plants work. Well-written and very interesting!
    • 5/5
      If you're a gardener with a scientific bent, or a fan of science with a botanic bent, this is a great book. Chamovitz breaks down the current science of botany and makes it interesting and comprehensible to the average armchair enthusiast by using our own senses as a basis for what a plant...knows. Do plants 'see'? Do plants 'feel'? So plants have a sense of 'smell'? The answers might surprise a few people. The author is very clear that these comparisons are very loose and plants are not, of course, thinking or sentient. But as a starting point for understanding how plants do thrive and survive, our senses make for an excellent starting point. This is a fast read; I was able to complete it in one day, and there was nothing dense about the writing or the research. Chamovitz provides suggestions for links in the footnotes, a very thorough Notes section and an excellent index. There wasn't a wealth of practical knowledge (although I do now know how to force short-day plants to bloom at will), but all of it was interesting and I learned a lot. Highly recommended for the greenies.
    • 4/5
      Not anything wonderful, but manages to stay mostly on the side of science and avoid spirituality.