Brilliant Green: The Surprising History and Science of Plant Intelligence, by Stefano Mancuso, Alessandra Viola
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Brilliant Green: The Surprising History and Science of Plant Intelligence, by Stefano Mancuso, Alessandra Viola
Ebook Download : Brilliant Green: The Surprising History and Science of Plant Intelligence, by Stefano Mancuso, Alessandra Viola
Are plants intelligent? Can they solve problems, communicate, and navigate their surroundings? Or are they passive, incapable of independent action or social behavior? Philosophers and scientists have pondered these questions since ancient Greece, most often concluding that plants are unthinking and inert: they are too silent, too sedentary -- just too different from us. Yet discoveries over the past fifty years have challenged these ideas, shedding new light on the extraordinary capabilities and complex interior lives of plants. In Brilliant Green, Stefano Mancuso, a leading scientist and founder of the field of plant neurobiology, presents a new paradigm in our understanding of the vegetal world. Combining a historical perspective with the latest in plant science, Mancuso argues that, due to cultural prejudices and human arrogance, we continue to underestimate plants. In fact, they process information, sleep, remember, and signal to one another -- showing that, far from passive machines, plants are intelligent and aware. Through a survey of plant capabilities from sight and touch to communication, Mancuso challenges our notion of intelligence, presenting a vision of plant life that is more sophisticated than most imagine. Plants have much to teach us, from network building to innovations in robotics and man-made materials -- but only if we understand more about how they live. Part botany lesson, part manifesto, Brilliant Green is an engaging and passionate examination of the inner workings of the plant kingdom. Financial support for the translation of this book has been provided by SEPS: Segretariato Europeo Per Le Pubblicazioni Scientifiche.
Brilliant Green: The Surprising History and Science of Plant Intelligence, by Stefano Mancuso, Alessandra Viola - Amazon Sales Rank: #65442 in Books
- Brand: Mancuso, Stefano/ Viola, Alessandra/ Benham, Joan (TRN)/ Pollan, Michael (FRW)
- Published on: 2015-03-12
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.00" h x 1.00" w x 5.00" l, 1.00 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 192 pages
Brilliant Green: The Surprising History and Science of Plant Intelligence, by Stefano Mancuso, Alessandra Viola Review “Brilliant Green… [is a] timely, highly accessible summar[y] of fast-developing fields… Combine[s] a passion for plants and a desire to illustrate their largely unsung complexities with an appreciation of the burden of proof needed to persuade us of a world that contains chlorophyllic sentience.” (New Scientist)"Mancuso advocates for a second Copernican revolution, of sorts. Just as medieval people had to concede that the stars and planets don't orbit Earth, we must accept that the living world doesn't revolve around us." (Maclean's)"Mancuso and Viola blaze a trail of intrigue, to study the seemingly inaccessible, to fathom the unfathomable, to celebrate the essence of life on Earth....This book is nothing short of summer reading that broadens the soul." (San Francisco Book Review)"A brilliant fusion of historical and modern research, Brilliant Green is a quirky little book can be quickly read, yet it is captivating and eye-opening, and will make you stop and think. The authors’ fervor and wit jolt the reader out apathetic anthropocentrism and we awaken in the fascinating world of plant intelligence." (The Guardian's GrrlScientist)"Brilliant Green.. lays out the case for approaching plants as fellow intelligent life-forms... key insights to fields across the sciences, from botany to robotics." (Boston Globe)"A short primer/manifesto on the history and science of the [plant intelligence movement]." (Salon)"...a compelling and fascinating case not only for plant sentience and smarts, but also plant rights." (The Guardian)"Brilliant Green… [is a] timely, highly accessible summar[y] of fast-developing fields… Combine[s] a passion for plants and a desire to illustrate their largely unsung complexities with an appreciation of the burden of proof needed to persuade us of a world that contains chlorophyllic sentience." (New Scientist)"Read this book: it informs and excites the mind. Exuberantly translated from Italian by Joan Benham, Brilliant Green can be read in a sitting...an excellent work." (The Biologist)"...Mancuso, a leading scientist and founder of the field of plant neurobiology, presents a new paradigm in our understanding of the vegetal world." (EarthTalk)"[Brilliant Green] is an interesting book about plant intelligence with amazing examples of how plants routinely interact with their surroundings." (Wildlife Activist)"...an engaging and passionate examination of the inner workings of the plant kingdom" (Davie Mustangs See The World)"Referring to ground-breaking scientific studies and historical perspectives, the authors shake up our views of the plant world—one that we are totally dependent on for oxygen and food, and one that we cannot afford to take for granted." (NEXUS Magazine)"[Brilliant Green] is, like the best science, the product of a powerful imagination, one with the ability to see the world from a completely fresh and unencumbered point of view—and to communicate that perspective to the rest of us. So put aside for a couple of hours your accustomed anthropocentrism, and step into this other, richer and more wonderful world. You won’t regret it, and you won’t emerge from it ever quite the same again." (From the foreword by Michael Pollan author of The Omnivore's Dilemma, The Botany of Desire, and other books)"Mancuso may be provocative, but he’s not alone and he hasn’t been for a long time." (The Washington Post)
About the Author Stefano Mancuso is the Director of the International Laboratory of Plant Neurobiology (LINV) in Florence, Italy, a founder of the International Society for Plant Signaling and Behavior, and a professor at the University of Florence. His most recent project is the Jellyfish Barge, a modular floating greenhouse which grows plants through solar-powered seawater desalination, featured in the 2015 Universal Expo in Milan. Mancuso’s books and papers have been published in numerous international magazines and journals, and La Repubblica newspaper has listed him among the twenty people who will change our lives.Alessandra Viola is a scientific journalist, writer of documentaries, and a television scriptwriter. In 2011, she directed the Genoa Science Festival.
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Most helpful customer reviews
25 of 27 people found the following review helpful. Better than us By David Wineberg Plants are far more advanced than we give them credit for. Mancuso and Viola are out to set the record straight, and they do it in an easy to read primer on the structure of plants. This is a fast read and a short book, covering a lot of ground far less verbosely than Darwin, where pretty much all of the observations originated.The most important revelation in Brilliant Green is that plants are in effect colonies, like ants or bees. There are no essential organs that can fatally fail, and damage can be overcome by the network structure, much like the internet. Plants have numerous internal networks and systems. There is constant, active internal communication, and they take a very active role in their wellbeing and their environs. They can sense and favor their own offspring, seek out nutrients and avoid poisons, and instruct leaves to be more conservationist when moisture levels underground are low. They have not only all five of our senses, but 15 more, like detecting gravity, levels of sunlight, time of year and the presence of others.If plants are wiped out, we would not survive more than a few weeks. If we were wiped out, plants would take over everything we had built in a few years. A lot more respect is due.David Wineberg
40 of 48 people found the following review helpful. Fascinating topic, incisive research, terrible writing By Aaron C. Brown This is one of the most thought-provoking and the most irritating books I have read in quite a while. It begins with a history of prescientific investigation of plants. These often began by defining plants as living things that don't move. That is a poor definition for three reasons. First many plants do move in various ways, and second all plants move by growing. The latter may be slow compared to animals, but ignoring it misses some essential plant behavior. These reasons are pretty obvious, and will have already occurred to most readers of this book. But the third one, while just as obvious, may not have (at least it had not occurred to me). The real defining feature of plants compared to animals is that functionality is generalized and spread throughout the plant. While animals have specialized organs for specialized functions, and these organs can rarely be replaced if damaged or destroyed, plants are composed of generalist cells that can regrow whatever special structures are needed. This leads to a different way of thinking about plants, in some ways a plant is more like a colony of eusocial animals than a single entity.Another ancient error is to assume that because plants are defined by the lack of an ability, plants are an intermediate form between inanimate (a word that illustrates the error by meaning not living, not moving and not like animals simultaneously) matter and animals. Many people assumed that because plants lacked specialized organs for a function, that they were incapable of that function; plants had no eyes so could not see, plants had no brains so could not think, plants had no mouths so could not communicate.Some of these attitudes spilled over into scientific investigation, and can still cause errors. Unfortunately, this book veers between intemperate expressions of clear points and convoluted expositions. When the author's passion is aroused you know what he means, but it's wildly overstated. When he calms down, it gets very hard to figure out what he means. If the author likes a thinker (e.g. Darwin) he can do no wrong, if the author does not like a thinker (e.g. Linneaus) he can do no right.This causes major problems when we get to modern research. The author does not engage with critics, he tags them with the errors of Aristotle and dismisses them. But if he likes a line of research, he oversells it. For example, it may well be true that biologists are too quick to assume that animal behavior drives plant/animal cooperation. It's more natural to talk about ants farming plants than plants controlling ants. But I don't think this is universal, for example, it is more natural to talk about plants attracting bees for pollination than bees exploiting plants for nectar. Moreover, the truth is almost certainly that neither view is correct, that what we witness are the results of coevolution.But my biggest objection is the author does not parse out the subtleties in these questions and describe experiments that could test ideas. For example, plant stomata open and close in response to stimuli, which proves that plants can sense and process information. But to claim plants think, I would need stronger evidence. For example, could you teach a plant to open or close stomata in response to types of stimulus other than light, temperature, humidity or carbon dioxide? Or could you influence one plant's stomata by exposing the plant next to it to stimulus that normally causes opening and closing?For another example, consider whether humans invented agriculture or plants enslaved humans. The former view seems more consistent with the fact that humans farm many plants, but these plants are farmed only by humans; and that the plants underwent far more rapid and drastic genetic change as a result. The author's account does not discuss aspects like this, so it is more the level of a stoned 3 AM dorm bull session than a popular science book.If you can put up with the repetition, overstatement and half-baked speculation, you find a lot of fascinating information and insight in this book. It could change the way you think about plants, and life in general, and also expose you to some dramatic research results.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful. Changes your perception on plants By Edgy Szay Brilliant book, I certainly have a different view on plants now after reading this!Interesting concepts with the occasionally nice drawings accompanying them and is written in a simple way for non-experts in the scientific department like me to comprehend. The author also helps give historical context as to how plants are constantly ignored and points out the reasons (which apparently come not from rational observations but rather simply from our own egoistical presumptions that plants are lower class than us because they are structurally different to us are among the other reasons that are touched upon by the book) as to why exactly they are regarded as so.Compared to the reviews given from others though, I don't mind the repetition and the style of writing; I definitely would have forgotten about most of the things it discussed about had it not been repeated.All in all, I personally find this book a great 'food-for-thought' book to read during your free time, and would whole-heartedly recommend this book to others interested in books that challenge and possibly change their views!Brilliant Green is not a terribly long book, but it's not a terribly short one either. Reading it in either bits and pieces or (if you have the time) in one go is fine because the author of this book makes sure that the reader would leave with information they'll be sure to remember even after only having read it once!
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Brilliant Green: The Surprising History and Science of Plant Intelligence, by Stefano Mancuso, Alessandra Viola
