Stefano Mancuso

"In this thought-provoking, handsomely illustrated book, Italian neurobiologist Stefano Mancuso considers the fundamental differences between plants and animals and challenges our assumptions about which is the ‘higher’ form of life.” —The Wall Street Journal “Fascinating…full of optimism…this quick, accessible read will appeal to anyone with interest in how plants continue to surprise us.” —Library Journal Do plants have intelligence? Do they have memory? Are they better problem solvers than people? The Revolutionary Genius of Plants—a fascinating, paradigm-shifting work that upends everything you thought you knew about plants—makes a compelling scientific case that these and other astonishing ideas are all true. Plants make up eighty percent of the weight of all living things on earth, and yet it is easy to forget that these innocuous, beautiful organisms are responsible for not only the air that lets us survive, but for many of our modern comforts: our medicine, food supply, even our fossil fuels. On the forefront of uncovering the essential truths about plants, world-renowned scientist Stefano Mancuso reveals the surprisingly sophisticated ability of plants to innovate, to remember, and to learn, offering us creative solutions to the most vexing technological and ecological problems that face us today. Despite not having brains or central nervous systems, plants perceive their surroundings with an even greater sensitivity than animals. They efficiently explore and react promptly to potentially damaging external events thanks to their cooperative, shared systems; without any central command centers, they are able to remember prior catastrophic events and to actively adapt to new ones. Every page of The Revolutionary Genius of Plants bubbles over with Stefano Mancuso’s infectious love for plants and for the eye-opening research that makes it more and more clear how remarkable our fellow inhabitants on this planet really are. In his hands, complicated science is wonderfully accessible, and he has loaded the book with gorgeous photographs that make for an unforgettable reading experience. The Revolutionary Genius of Plants opens the doors to a new understanding of life on earth.

A New Understanding of Plant Intelligence and Behavior

The Revolutionary Genius of Plants

Alessandra Viola

In this book, a leading plant scientist offers a new understanding of the botanical world and a passionate argument for intelligent plant life. Are plants intelligent? Can they solve problems, communicate, and navigate their surroundings? For centuries, philosophers and scientists have argued that plants are unthinking and inert, yet discoveries over the past fifty years have challenged this idea, shedding new light on the complex interior lives of plants. In Brilliant Green, leading scientist Stefano Mancuso presents a new paradigm in our understanding of the vegetal world. He argues that plants process information, sleep, remember, and signal to one another-showing that, far from passive machines, plants are intelligent and aware. Part botany lesson, part manifesto, Brilliant Green is an engaging and passionate examination of the inner workings of the plant kingdom.--

The Surprising History and Science of Plant Intelligence

Brilliant Green

In this richly illustrated volume, a leading neurobiologist presents fascinating stories of plant migration that reveal unexpected connections between nature and culture. When we talk about migrations, we should study plants to understand that these phenomena are unstoppable. In the many different ways plants move, we can see the incessant action and drive to spread life that has led plants to colonize every possible environment on earth. The history of this relentless expansion is unknown to most people, but we can begin our exploration with these surprising tales, engagingly told by Stefano Mancuso. Generation after generation, using spores, seeds, or any other means available, plants move in the world to conquer new spaces. They release huge quantities of spores that can be transported thousands of miles. The number and variety of tools through which seeds spread is astonishing: we have seeds dispersed by wind, by rolling on the ground, by animals, by water, or by a simple fall from the plant, which can happen thanks to propulsive mechanisms, the swaying of the mother plant, the drying of the fruit, and much more. In this accessible, absorbing overview, Mancuso considers how plants convince animals to transport them around the world, and how some plants need particular animals to spread; how they have been able to grow in places so inaccessible and inhospitable as to remain isolated; how they resisted the atomic bomb and the Chernobyl disaster; how they are able to bring life to sterile islands; how they can travel through the ages, as they sail around the world.

The Incredible Journey of Plants

"A leading plant neurobiologist presents the eight fundamental pillars on which the life of plants-and by extension humans-rests in this playful yet eye-opening guidebook. Even if they behave as though they were, humans are not the masters of the Earth, but only one of its most irksome residents. From the moment of their arrival, about 300,000 years ago-nothing when compared to the history of life on our planet-humans have succeeded in changing the conditions of the planet so drastically as to make it a dangerous place for their own survival. The causes of this reckless behavior are in part inherent in their predatory nature, but they also depend on our total incomprehension of the rules that govern the existence of a community of living beings. The last to arrive on the planet, we behave like children who wreak havoc, unaware of the value and significance of the things they are playing with. In The Nation of Plants, the most important, widespread, and powerful nation on Earth finally gets to speak. Like attentive parents, plants, after making it possible for us to live, have come to our aid once again, giving us their rules: this is the first Charter of Rights of Living Beings written by the plants. A short constitution based on the general principles that regulate the common life of plants, it establishes norms applicable to all living beings. Compared to our constitutions, which place humans at the center of the entire juridical reality, in conformity with an anthropocentricism that reduces to things all that is not human, plants offer us a revolution"--

The Nation of Plants

Die Intelligenz der Pflanzen

La nazione delle piante

L'incredibile viaggio delle piante

Revolucao das Plantas - um novo modelo para o futuro

Bitkilerin gayet zeki olduğu ve iletişim kurabildiği bir gezegen hayal edin. Bu hayali gezegende bitkiler kendi aralarında bilgi alışverişi yapabiliyor. Köklerinden en tepesindeki yaprağa kadar her türlü bilgiyi aktarabiliyor. Çevresinde kendi türünden olanlarla diğerlerini ayırabiliyor. Tuzak kurarak avlanabiliyor. İklim geçişlerine, kuraklığa ya da aşırı yağmurlara karşı tedbir alabiliyor. Daha da ileri gidip, diğer bitkilerle ve bazı hayvanlarla ağ kurabiliyorlar. Kendilerini korumak ve otçullardan sakınmak için, başka canlılardan yardım alabiliyorlar. Üremek için işbirliği geliştirebiliyorlar. Bu sessiz, pasif ve savunmasız gözüken bitkilerin en küçük kök solucanından insanlara kadar, etraflarındaki herkesi yönlendirerek ve onlarla iletişime geçerek yaşamlarını organize ettiği bir gezegen hayal edebiliyor musunuz? Boşuna uğraşmayın, bu gezegen zaten var: Dünya’ya hoş geldiniz. Bu kitapta yazılanları bize çok önce öğretilmiş bilgilerle anlamamız imkansız. Yeni bir perspektif ve zarif bir bakış açısıyla bilindik bitkilere yönelik bütün yargılarınız temelden sarsılabilir. Dünyanın her yanında ses getirmeye aday bu yepyeni kitap, şimdiden pek çok dergiye kapak oldu ve insanlık bir kez daha doğru bildiklerini kenara itmek zorunda kalacak gibi. “Birkaç saatliğine alışık olduğunuz insan merkezciliğinizi bir kenara bırakın. Daha zengin ve daha muhteşem diğer dünyaya adım atın. Pişman olmayacaksınız ve bu yeni dünyadan asla eskisi gibi çıkamayacaksınız.” Michael Pollan, yazar

Bitki Zekası

Verde brillante. Sensibilità e intelligenza del mondo vegetale

"En este nuevo libro, Stefano Mancuso continúa la investigación que inició en Sensibilidad e inteligencia en el mundo vegetal. Ofrece de nuevo una revolucionaria mirada al mundo de las plantas, en este caso estudiando las soluciones que las plantas encuentran a los múltiples retos a los que se enfrentan y sacando de ellas modelos para inspirar soluciones a los problemas que acechan a la humanidad. Necesitamos a las plantas para mejorar nuestras vidas, para inventar nuevas tecnologías, para imaginar nuevos modelos de organización social más descentralizados, menos jerárquicos. Las plantas son paradigmas de la vida contemporánea por su flexibilidad y fortaleza frente a la fragilidad del mundo humano y animal. En una palabra, las plantas son fascinantes: consumen poca energía, son fuertes, tienen una inteligencia compartida, actúan de forma colectiva, tienen una extraordinaria capacidad para sobrevivir en entornos hostiles, aprenden de la experiencia y poseen mecanismos de memorización. Nuestro futuro va más allá de una visión de color verde. Urge que encontremos soluciones a la manera de las plantas. Stefano Mancuso propone en este libro varias soluciones para problemas acuciantes como la escasez de agua dulce, la falta de suficiente tierra cultivable para alimentar a la humanidad, la creciente contaminación de las ciudades y el cambio climático. Una vez más, Mancuso nos sorprende nos invita a reflexionar y, sobre todo, a actuar" -- Publicaciones Arquitectura y Arte

El futuro es vegetal

Gregory Conti

Nation of Plants, the, Pb

Passi dal Libro di pittura dimostrano come Leonardo avesse chiaro il concetto di ordinamento fillotassico, avesse osservato il sistema per calcolare l'età degli alberi, avesse scoperto la legge dell'accrescimento secondario del fusto dovuto all'azione del cambio.

Uomini che amano le piante. Storie di scienziati del mondo vegetale

Bitki Devrimi

Die unglaubliche Reise der Pflanzen

La pianta del mondo

Plant revolution

La nación de las plantas

De intelligentie van planten

With fun, fascinating vignettes, a renowned neurobiologist illuminates the interconnectedness of plant life and how we can learn from it to better plan our communities. We animals account for a paltry 0.3% of the planet’s biomass while plants add up to 85%. And when, with just a little training, we are able to look at the world without seeing it solely as humanity’s playground, we cannot help but notice the ubiquity of plants. They are everywhere, and their stories are inevitably bound up with ours. As every tree in a forest is linked to all the others by an underground network of roots, uniting them to form a super organism, so plants constitute the nervous system, the plan that is the “greenprint” of our world. To ignore the existence of this plan is one of the most serious threats to the survival of our species. In this latest book, the brilliant Stefano Mancuso is back to illuminate the greenprint of our world. He does it through unforgettable stories starring plants that combine an inimitable narrative style with remarkable scientific rigor, from the story of the red spruce that gave Stradivarius the wood for his fourteen violins, to the Kauri tree stump, kept alive for decades by the interconnected root system of nearby trees. From the mystery of the slipperiness of the banana skin to the plant that solved the “crime of the century,” the Lindbergh kidnapping, by way of wooden ladder rungs.

Stefano Mancuso

About

Books

Join the club