What a Plant Knows: A Field Guide to the Senses - Couverture rigide

Chamovitz, Daniel

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0374288739 ISBN 13 : 9780374288730

Editeur : Scientific Amer Books, 2012

A propos du livre

Revue de presse

"What a Plant Knows is lively, eloquent, scientifically accurate, and easy-to-read ... I commend this engaging text to all who wonder about life on Earth, and seek a compelling introduction to the lives of plants revealed through centuries of careful scientific experimentation." --Professor Stephen D. Hopper, Director, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

"Chamovitz walks the Homo sapiens reader right into the shoes -- or I should say roots -- of the plant world. After reading this book you will never again walk innocently past a plant or reach insensitively for a leaf. You will marvel and be haunted by a plant's sensory attributes and the shared genes between the plant and animal kingdoms." --Elisabeth Tova Bailey, author of The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating

"Just like us, a plant that aspires to win the rat race must exploit its environment. Even a daffodil can detect when you're standing in its light, and a rhododendron knows when you're savaging its neighbour with the pruning shears. With deftness and clarity, Chamovitz introduces plants' equivalents of our senses, plus floral forms of memory and orientation. When you realize how much plants know, you may think twice before you bite them!" --Hannah Holmes, author of Suburban Safari

"Just as his groundbreaking research uncovered connections between the plant and animal kingdoms, Daniel Chamovitz's insights in What a Plant Knows transcend the world of plants. You'll see plants in a new light after reading this book." --Gloria Coruzzi, Professor of Biology, New York University

"A fascinating book that explores accessibly the evidence that plants share more properties with animals than most people appreciate. It may come as a relief to vegetarians to learn that plants do not feel pain or suffer, in the human sense, when harvested. Nevertheless, after reading What a Plant Knows, we wanted to apologize to our daffodils for the times when our shadows have shielded them from the Sun." --John and Mary Gribbin, authors of The Flower Hunters

Présentation de l'éditeur

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? 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.
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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.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Scientific Amer Books
• Date d'édition: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0374288739
• ISBN 13: 9780374288730
• Reliure: Relié
• Langue: anglais
• Nombre de pages: 177
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible