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    Unavailable
    What a Plant Knows: A Field Guide to the Senses: Updated and Expanded Edition
    Unavailable
    What a Plant Knows: A Field Guide to the Senses: Updated and Expanded Edition
    Unavailable
    What a Plant Knows: A Field Guide to the Senses: Updated and Expanded Edition
    Ebook272 pages3 hours

    What a Plant Knows: A Field Guide to the Senses: Updated and Expanded Edition

    By Daniel Chamovitz

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    How does a Venus flytrap know when to snap shut? Can it actually feel an insect's tiny, spindly legs? And how do cherry blossoms know when to bloom? Can they actually remember the weather?

    For centuries we have collectively marveled at plant diversity and form—from Charles Darwin's early fascination with stems to Seymour Krelborn's distorted doting in Little Shop of Horrors. But now, in What a Plant Knows, the renowned biologist Daniel Chamovitz presents an intriguing and scrupulous look at how plants themselves experience the world—from the colors they see to the schedules they keep. Highlighting the latest research in genetics and more, he takes us into the inner lives 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. Chamovitz shows how plants know up from down, how they know when a neighbor has been infested by a group of hungry beetles, and whether they appreciate the Led Zeppelin you've been playing for them or if they're more partial to the melodic riffs of Bach. Covering touch, sound, smell, sight, and even memory, Chamovitz encourages us all to consider whether plants might even be aware of their surroundings.

    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, What a Plant Knows offers us a greater understanding of science and our place in nature.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateMay 22, 2012
    ISBN9781429946230
    Unavailable
    What a Plant Knows: A Field Guide to the Senses: Updated and Expanded Edition
    Author

    Daniel Chamovitz

    Daniel Chamovitz, PhD, is the director of the Manna Center for Plant Biosciences at Tel Aviv University. He grew up in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, and studied at Columbia University before receiving his PhD in genetics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has been a visiting scientist at Yale University and at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, and has lectured at universities worldwide. His research on plants and fruitflies has appeared in leading scientific journals. Chamovitz lives with his wife and three children in Hod HaSharon, Israel.

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    Reviews for What a Plant Knows

    4/5

    63 ratings5 reviews

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    • 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
      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
      I read this book twice in a row I found it so interesting. Excellent introduction to the way that plants function and communicate. I've recommended it to many people.
    • 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.

      5 people found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Not anything wonderful, but manages to stay mostly on the side of science and avoid spirituality.

      1 person found this helpful