Name: Robert Stannard's review of Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake
Item: Entangled Life
Rating: 4
Author: Robert Stannard

Merlin Sheldrake

Living at the border between life and non-life, fungi use diverse cocktails of potent enzymes and acids to disassemble some of the most stubborn substances on the planet, turning rock into soil and wood into compost, allowing plants to grow. Merlin Sheldrake's revelatory introduction to this world will show us how fungi, and our relationships with them, are more astonishing than we could have imagined

How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures

Entangled Life

Sie sind in der Erde, in der Luft, in unserem Körper. Pilze sind überall, aber man übersieht sie leicht. Sie halten uns am Leben, bauen Schadstoffe in der Atmosphäre ab und verändern das Verhalten von Tieren. Sie beeinflussen, wie wir Menschen fühlen und denken und sind für alle Lebensformen unverzichtbar. Sie existieren an der Grenze zwischen Leben und Tod. Der größte bekannte Pilz umfasst etwa die Größe von Zypern, wiegt 35.000 Tonnen und ist 2.000 Jahre alt. Pilze verfügen über eine eigene Intelligenz ohne zentrales Gehirn und können ihre Umwelt manipulieren. Merlin Sheldrake dringt ein in das verborgene Netzwerk der Pilze.

Wie Pilze unsere Welt formen und unsere Zukunft beeinflussen

Verwobenes Leben

JimStritzkt

Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, dessen Leben rund um die Rossameisen organisiert ist, ist einer der am besten untersuchten Zombie-Pilze. Sind die Ameisen mit dem Pilz infi-ziert, verlieren sie ihre instinktive Höhenangst, verlassen die relative Sicherheit ihres Nestes und klettern auf die nächste Pflanze - ein Krankheitsbild, das als »Gipfelkrankheit« bezeichnet wird. Zu gegebener Zeit zwingt der Pilz die Ameise, sich mit ihren Kiefern in einem »Todesbiss« an die Pflanze zu klammern. Nun wächst das Mycel aus den Füßen der Ameise heraus und heftet sie an der Oberfläche der Pflanze fest. Der Pilz verdaut den Körper der Ameise und lässt aus ihrem Kopf einen Stiel sprießen, aus dem die Sporen auf darunter umherlaufende Ameisen herabregnen. Verfehlen die Sporen ihr Ziel, produzieren sie klebrige sekundäre Sporen, die sich nach außen verlängern und regelrechte Fallstricke bilden?

Zombie-Pilze steuern das Verhalten ihrer Wirtsinsekten mit höchster Präzision. Ophiocordyceps zwingt die Ameisen. zu dem Todesgriff genau an der Stelle, an der Temperatur und Feuchtigkeit dem Pilz das Keimen erlauben: in einer Höhe von 25 Zentimetern über dem Waldboden.

Josie

I might not dig my hands into the dirt like those who came before me, but I cover myself in its recycled water. I imagine it seeping into my skin as it seeped through the soil to rest under this land.

“A mycelial network is one large chemically sensitive membrane: A molecule can bind to a receptor any

surface and trigger a signaling cascade that alters fungal

Fungi live their lives bathed in a rich field of chemical information.”

*THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER* *A NEW STATESMAN, DAILY TELEGRAPH, THE TIMES, BBC SCIENCE FOCUS, EVENING STANDARD, MAIL ON SUNDAY AND SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020* 'A dazzling, vibrant, vision-changing book. I ended it wonderstruck at the fungal world. A remarkable work by a remarkable writer' Robert Macfarlane The more we learn about fungi, the less makes sense without them. Neither plant nor animal, they are found throughout the earth, the air and our bodies. They can be microscopic, yet also account for the largest organisms ever recorded. They enabled the first life on land, can survive unprotected in space and thrive amidst nuclear radiation. In fact, nearly all life relies in some way on fungi. These endlessly surprising organisms have no brain but can solve problems and manipulate animal behaviour with devastating precision. In giving us bread, alcohol and life-saving medicines, fungi have shaped human history, and their psychedelic properties have recently been shown to alleviate a number of mental illnesses. Their ability to digest plastic, explosives, pesticides and crude oil is being harnessed in break-through technologies, and the discovery that they connect plants in underground networks, the 'Wood Wide Web', is transforming the way we understand ecosystems. Yet over ninety percent of their species remain undocumented. Entangled Life is a mind-altering journey into a spectacular and neglected world, and shows that fungi provide a key to understanding both the planet on which we live, and life itself. 'Reads like an adventure story ... wondrous ... beguilingly weaves together lived experience and scientific research' Sunday Times 'An astonishing book that could alter our perceptions of fungi for ever. It seems somehow to tip the natural world upside down' Observer 'Dazzling ... reveals a world that's both more extraordinary and more delicate than could be imagined' Daily Mail

How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds and Shape Our Futures

strange loop

"Merlin Sheldrake's marvelous tour of these diverse and extraordinary life forms is eye-opening on why humans should consider fungi among the greatest of earth's marvels. . . . Wondrous."--Time A mind-bending journey into the hidden universe of fungi, "one of those rare books that can truly change the way you see the world around you" (Helen Macdonald, author of H Is for Hawk). NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Time - New Statesman - London Evening Standard - Science Friday When we think of fungi, we likely think of mushrooms. But mushrooms are only fruiting bodies, analogous to apples on a tree. Most fungi live out of sight, yet make up a massively diverse kingdom of organisms that supports and sustains nearly all living systems. Fungi provide a key to understanding the planet on which we live, and the ways we think, feel, and behave. In Entangled Life, the brilliant young biologist Merlin Sheldrake shows us the world from a fungal point of view, providing an exhilarating change of perspective. Sheldrake's vivid exploration takes us from yeast to psychedelics, to the fungi that range for miles underground and are the largest organisms on the planet, to those that link plants together in complex networks known as the "Wood Wide Web," to those that infiltrate and manipulate insect bodies with devastating precision. Fungi throw our concepts of individuality and even intelligence into question. They are metabolic masters, earth makers, and key players in most of life's processes. They can change our minds, heal our bodies, and even help us remediate environmental disaster. By examining fungi on their own terms, Sheldrake reveals how these extraordinary organisms--and our relationships with them--are changing our understanding of how life works. Praise for Entangled Life "Entangled Life is a gorgeous book of literary nature writing in the tradition of [Robert] Macfarlane and John Fowles, ripe with insight and erudition. . . . food for the soul."--Eugenia Bone, Wall Street Journal "[An] ebullient and ambitious exploration . . . This book may not be a psychedelic--and unlike Sheldrake, I haven't dared to consume my copy (yet)--but reading it left me not just moved but altered, eager to disseminate its message of what fungi can do."--Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times

Laura Dobie

Emily

Slow going for me. The subject is fascinating but very technical so often need to refer to the notes section. Mycelium must become the new wonder product for this century, packaging to comms network.

Robert Stannard

Slow going for me. The subject is fascinating but very technical so often need to refer to the notes section. Mycelium must become the new wonder product for this century, packaging to comms network.
Maybe I'll try the audio edition.

'A dazzling, vibrant, vision-changing book. I ended it wonderstruck at the fungal world. A remarkable work by a remarkable writer' Robert Macfarlane, author of Underland The more we learn about fungi, the less makes sense without them. Neither plant nor animal, they are found throughout the earth, the air and our bodies. They can be microscopic, yet also account for the largest organisms ever recorded. They enabled the first life on land, can survive unprotected in space and thrive amidst nuclear radiation. In fact, nearly all life relies in some way on fungi. These endlessly surprising organisms have no brain but can solve problems and manipulate animal behaviour with devastating precision. In giving us bread, alcohol and life-saving medicines, fungi have shaped human history, and their psychedelic properties have recently been shown to alleviate a number of mental illnesses. Their ability to digest plastic, explosives, pesticides and crude oil is being harnessed in break-through technologies, and the discovery that they connect plants in underground networks, the 'Wood Wide Web', is transforming the way we understand ecosystems. Yet over ninety percent of their species remain undocumented. Entangled Life is a mind-altering journey into a spectacular and neglected world, and shows that fungi provide a key to understanding both the planet on which we live, and life itself. 'One of those rare books that can truly change the way you see the world around you. Astounding' Helen MacDonald, author of H Is for Hawk

I’ve learned more from Entangled Life than any other book I’ve read in quite a while. If you’re not sold on magical powers of fungi and how the world runs on mycelium afterwards, I don’t know what to say to you.

Karolina

3.5 rounded down. It's somehow difficult for me to get into the writing style, jadi bikin ngantuk. I'm fascinated by some bits especially the Prototaxites, mycohets, and white rot fungi, but I feel like most of the things are only explained on the surface. Maybe I need to read the notes tapi dikumpulin semua di akhir trus males..

matej yangwao

** spoiler alert **
           If you're ever been interested learn about mushrooms ecosystem and nature of positive-sum effects, you'll learn bits or two about it.

We can definitely inspire how to survive from mushrooms.

≥combining plants into a large-scale ecosystem, the so-called “wood wide web.”

≥Scientists have studied and described only 6% of all types of fungi

>The fragrant fruiting bodies of truffles result from mushroom “mating” — the hyphae of one mycelium system merges with the hyphae of another (the mycelium is an artificially created root system of the fungus, and the hyphae are its filaments). Also, If the hyphae do not find a tree partner, they will die. Mycorrhizal trees provide carbon to truffles, and fungi help the tree’s roots absorb nutrients better . In the endless jumble of various organisms in the soil, plants use chemical compounds to find each other.

≥Mushrooms’ smell and taste create a chemical language to communicate with animals and people.

≥The mycelium network permeates most of the world with its filaments. If you isolate the mycelium from one gram of soil and arrange all its threads one after another, its length can be tens of kilometers. These mycelium webs live in labyrinths in the soil, have learned to decipher spatial puzzles, and even help scientists solve human problems.

≥Olsson suggested that mycelium networks transmit signals to each other using electricity. He inserted electrodes into the fungal hyphae and noticed regular impulses similar to the sensory neurons of animals. He then placed a piece of wood, which fed the mushroom, on the mycelium a few centimeters from the electrodes and found that the intensity of the mushroom's pulses doubled.

≥Mycelium networks can be compared to polyphony — equal voices that function independently to form a melody.

≥The BIOMEX program has found that some hardy lichen species can restore metabolism after dehydration and heal space-inflicted wounds.

≥in 1877, the German botanist Albert Frank coined the word “symbiosis” to describe their partnership. So, lichens became an example of how the components of the kingdom of nature cooperate — the mushroom component provides physical protection and extracts minerals, and the algal component absorbs light and carbon dioxide for energy.

>In space, the lichen learned to fall into suspended animation and could be reanimated even ten years later. Thus, the lichen can possibly open new ways for people to travel in space.

>Our need to find and distribute fungi makes us part of their evolutionary path.

≥cooperation with fungi. For example, tomatoes become sweeter, while basil gains different flavors.

≥When you savor the fruit of a plant, you are most likely tasting the result of a mycorrhizal relationship.

>The mycelium is a kind of knot that holds the soil. If you remove it, the earth will quickly wash out — mycorrhizal fungi increase the volume of water that the soil can absorb by 50%. This symbiosis opens new opportunities for the union members. Much like the interaction of people and horses that led to the emergence of transport, fungi and plants are examples of living organisms' striving to create connections.

≥The fungi, which become members of the mycorrhizal relationship, have benefits as they can find more sources to feed. Living organisms in mycorrhizal relationships survive better than plants outside the network. The wood wide web not only transports resources but also moves hormones, which regulate growth and development.

≥the fungi can broadcast a warning about danger through the network. If aphids attack a plant, the fungus will also suffer, so it will amplify the chemical alarm. At the same time, the mushroom will always prefer a healthy plant if there is a choice between plants in danger. Mycelium networks never rest, never stop looking for partners and never stop helping them. Everything that happens inside them is an ongoing process.

≥Fungal systems are dynamic, and they provide the continuous movement of nutrients in nature.

≥The American company Ecoactive Design uses mycelium to create building materials. It sends agricultural waste to feed its mushrooms; as a result, strong and light materials grow out of sawdust. The company strives to displace plastic and stop using animal skins. Ecoactive Design is already partnering with IKEA; NASA is also interested in the possibility of collaboration — mycomaterials can be helpful for constructions on the Moon.

≥Fungi are closely intertwined in people's lives. Yeast mushrooms live in our bodies, and we have learned to use yeast for many purposes — brewing, winemaking, and bread making. Yeast domesticated people and forced them to lead a sedentary lifestyle, and because of the possibility of making bread and beer, people began to abandon nomadism. Alcohol had a unique effect on human consciousness; the ancient Greeks even worshiped a god of winemaking.

≥Mushrooms are capable of destruction, but they always create something in return.

Sheldrake's passion for fungi is infectious—I now look at the natural world with a new found sense of appreciation and wonder. Life is transient and always in flux whether we can perceive it or not.

Jajwol

nienke

"good experiments throw up more questions than they answer."

Merlin Sheldrake writes this book in a way that makes it very accessible to read for people who know little to none about fungi. That also makes it a lot easier to get through the book! I love how precise Sheldrake has done its research even though loads of information about fungi is yet to be discovered. More is unknown than is known, which makes fungi even more interesting than they already were. 

If you want to read a book that truly talks about stuff that is happening around you that you have no clue about, this is your book. I think this is one of my favourite books for school I've ever read and I mean that. I learned more about fungi than I learned during my current studies.

Onto a department of fungal science!

Tuago

Fascinating to learn about the lives of fungi and how intricate our lives are with them. The book could have been a bit more structured as it seemed to lack a bit of depth at the end.

Cloudface

A fascinating blend of mycology and philosophy. This book made me questions my idea of what makes sentient life. The author makes the information accessible and interesting, although I thought the last couple chapters dragged a bit. Still worth reading overall!

Matthew Royal

Good summary of a lot of other popular writing on fungi, their behavior, and their uses.

Shona Tiger

This first appeared in The Sunday Long Read, Sunday, May 8, 2022, Issue 343.

There was life before I read Sheldrake’s book, and then life after, where I think about fungi several times a week. I learnt all kinds of things from it: for instance, that there are fungi that use nets, nooses or toxins to trap worms, which they consume when they don’t have enough to eat. I know, now, that a stinkhorn mushroom can generate enough force to lift 130 kilograms (286 pounds). Mycelial networks, the fungal webs that are found everywhere, even in the ocean, may be considered to have a kind of intelligence, as they coordinate even without a brain. Through these networks, fungi may help trees in a forest talk to each other, and scientists believe understanding mycelial communication could lead to fungal computing.

I learnt that lichens, which are symbiotic, dynamic systems consisting of a fungus and an alga, are highly weird, and very cool. The oldest lichen is over nine thousand years old. Zombie fungi take over ants and take away their fear of heights, so that they climb up a plant, secure themselves to it, and die, after which the fungus bursts out of the ant’s head to release its spores. Fungi seem to somehow cause these ants to synchronise their death grip, so they all bite at noon, like bizarre, zombie vampires. There are fungi that are apparently thrilled to be in the presence of radiation—for example, at Chernobyl. And, through a process called mycoremediation, fungi may yet save us all.

It is astonishing how much we neglect fungi, which live in, under and all around us. Sheldrake has packed this absolutely excellent, very accessible book full of facts, explanations, and ideas—everything you didn’t realise you needed to know about fungi.

Rated: 10/10.

Ben Jenkins

Awesome read. Interesting stuff on every page. Highly recommend.

'A dazzling, vibrant, vision-changing book. Sentence after sentence stopped me short. I ended it wonderstruck at the fungal world. A remarkable work by a remarkable writer' ROBERT MACFARLANE, author of Underland There is a lifeform so strange and wondrous that it forces us to rethink how life works... Neither plant nor animal, it is found throughout the earth, the air and our bodies. It can be microscopic, yet also accounts for the largest organisms ever recorded, living for millennia and weighing tens of thousands of tonnes. Its ability to digest rock enabled the first life on land, it can survive unprotected in space, and thrives amidst nuclear radiation. In this captivating adventure, Merlin Sheldrake explores the spectacular and neglected world of fungi- endlessly surprising organisms that sustain nearly all living systems. They can solve problems without a brain, stretching traditional definitions of 'intelligence', and can manipulate animal behaviour with devastating precision. In giving us bread, alcohol and life-saving medicines, fungi have shaped human history, and their psychedelic properties, which have influenced societies since antiquity, have recently been shown to alleviate a number of mental illnesses. The ability of fungi to digest plastic, explosives, pesticides and crude oil is being harnessed in break-through technologies, and the discovery that they connect plants in underground networks, the 'Wood Wide Web', is transforming the way we understand ecosystems. Yet they live their lives largely out of sight, and over ninety percent of their species remain undocumented. Entangled Life is a mind-altering journey into this hidden kingdom of life, and shows that fungi are key to understanding the planet on which we live, and the ways we think, feel and behave. The more we learn about fungi, the less makes sense without them.

Pavonini

nonchi

This book is for nature lovers, enthusiasts, and novices. It doesn't take any in-depth knowledge to understand what the author is trying to say, much less to understand how important it is to have this knowledge itself. 
Each chapter has valuable information about how our ecosystem has sustained itself over the years through fungi, how it creates ways of living through relationships with plants, and how fungi are open to humanity to do the same. As a literary work, Sheldrake manages to translate with wonderful metaphors and illustrations the most complicated processes - in addition to clearly conveying the doubts and questions that still make up the world of mycology. At the same time you learn, you also question yourself along with the author, imagining possibilities cuz each chapter has its "what if .." moments. 
Everyone (especially those who feel they must do something for the world, even a little) needs to read Entangled Life. It isn't the key to understanding all climate resolutions, but at least in addition to teaching, it points out viable alternatives that you can invest some praxis to... as well as the alternatives that still remain among the realm of utopian ideas. Andreas Malm said that we have to aim at the ecological roots of perpetual disasters. He's talking about destroying capitalism, and I pretty much agree with, but also, I think there's no better way to start but with the roots entangled with fungi, the exuberant life full of mysteries that we like it or not, will definitely, shape our future.

Stephanie Ridiculous

What a great read. Weird facts, surprising facts, unsettling facts - a glimpse into a world we know so little about but has such a big influence on our lives.

Sheldrake does a decent job of making much of the nitty gritty scientific jargon readable, although it does bog in a few places. 

Highly recommend.

Cindy Lieberman

An excellent companion piece to Michael Pollan’s book about psychedelic mushrooms. This covers the fungi kingdom of mushrooms and lichen, written by a credentialed scientist with an adventurous side. My key takeaway is that mushrooms can save the bees, save the world, if only we’d open our minds to what these miracles of nature offer us. They challenge the idea of individuals when considering the mycelium network that thrives underground. Highly recommended.

Alexander Venturas

A fascinating exploration of a topic that I had never given much consideration before. I learned so much about the lives and behaviour of fungi, and their potential, and kept regaling people with fungal facts while I was reading it!

Picked this up on a whim and now I'm singing it's praises to anyone who will listen. Such beautiful writing and very compelling.

Emily &
Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake

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