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The Revolutionary Genius of Plants
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Dr. Catherine Kleier invites us to open our eyes to the phenomenal world of plant life and to the process she calls “Natura Revelata”, the joy of celebrating and learning from the secrets of nature. As Dr. Kleier shares her knowledge with contagious excitement for her subject, she emphasizes the middle ground: Instead of focusing on cell microbiology or the study of ecosystems and habitats, she stresses the basic biology, function, and the amazing adaptations of the plants we see all around us.
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Before there were mammals on land, there were dinosaurs. And before there were fish in the sea, there were cephalopods - the ancestors of modern squid and Earth's first truly substantial animals. Cephalopods became the first creatures to rise from the seafloor, essentially inventing the act of swimming. With dozens of tentacles and formidable shells, they presided over an undersea empire for millions of years. But when fish evolved jaws, the ocean's former top predator became its most delicious snack. Cephalopods had to step up their game.
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Everyone has heard of DNA. But by itself, DNA is just an inert blueprint for life. It is the ribosome - an enormous molecular machine made up of a million atoms - that makes DNA come to life, turning our genetic code into proteins and therefore into us. Gene Machine is an insider account of the race for the structure of the ribosome, a fundamental discovery that both advances our knowledge of all life and could lead to the development of better antibiotics against life-threatening diseases.
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Although mammals and birds are widely regarded as the smartest creatures on earth, it has lately become clear that a very distant branch of the tree of life has also sprouted higher intelligence: the cephalopods, consisting of the squid, the cuttlefish, and above all the octopus. In captivity, octopuses have been known to identify individual human keepers, raid neighboring tanks for food, turn off lightbulbs by spouting jets of water, plug drains, and make daring escapes.
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Empathy for an Octopus?
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How do trees live? Do they feel pain or have awareness of their surroundings? Research is now suggesting trees are capable of much more than we have ever known. In The Hidden Life of Trees, forester Peter Wohlleben puts groundbreaking scientific discoveries into a language everyone can relate to.
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A rich, sweeping, and compelling work of botanical history, The Cabaret of Plants explores dozens of plant species that for millennia have challenged our imaginations, awoken our wonder, and upturned our ideas about history, science, beauty, and belief. Going back to the beginnings of human history, Richard Mabey shows how flowers, trees, and plants have been central to human experience not just as sources of food and medicine but as objects of worship, actors in creation myths, and symbols of war and peace, life and death.
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Bees are like oxygen: ubiquitous, essential, and, for the most part, unseen. While we might overlook them, they lie at the heart of relationships that bind the human and natural worlds. In Buzz, the beloved Thor Hanson takes us on a journey that begins 125 million years ago, when a wasp first dared to feed pollen to its young. From honeybees and bumbles to lesser-known diggers, miners, leafcutters, and masons, bees have long been central to our harvests, our mythologies, and our very existence. They've given us sweetness and light, the beauty of flowers, and as much as a third of the foodstuffs we eat. And, alarmingly, they are at risk of disappearing.
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Not just honeybees!
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Lots of interesting stories
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 147
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We humans like to think of ourselves as highly evolved creatures. But if we are supposedly evolution's greatest creation, why do we have such bad knees? Why do we catch head colds so often - 200 times more often than a dog does? How come our wrists have so many useless bones? And are we really supposed to swallow and breathe through the same narrow tube? Surely there's been some kind of mistake. As professor of biology Nathan H. Lents explains in Human Errors, our evolutionary history is nothing if not a litany of mistakes, each more entertaining and enlightening than the last.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Most interesting, well narrated
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The Triumph of Seeds
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- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,003
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 913
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 919
We live in a world of seeds. From our morning toast to the cotton in our clothes, they are quite literally the stuff and staff of life, supporting diets, economies, and civilizations around the globe. Just as the search for nutmeg and the humble peppercorn drove the Age of Discovery, so did coffee beans help fuel the Enlightenment and cottonseed help spark the Industrial Revolution. And from the fall of Rome to the Arab Spring, the fate of nations continues to hinge on the seeds of a Middle Eastern grass known as wheat.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Delightfully simplistic!
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The Disordered Mind
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 102
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 88
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 85
Eric R. Kandel, the winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, is one of the pioneers of modern brain science. His work continues to shape our understanding of how learning and memory work and to break down age-old barriers between the sciences and the arts. In his seminal new audiobook, The Disordered Mind, Kandel draws on a lifetime of pathbreaking research and the work of many other leading neuroscientists to take us on an unusual tour of the brain. He confronts one of the most difficult questions we face: How does our mind, our individual sense of self, emerge from the physical matter of the brain?
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5 out of 5 stars
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Thoroughly enjoyed
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The Tree
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 59
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 54
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Story4 out of 5 stars 51
There are redwoods in California that were ancient by the time Columbus first landed and pines still alive that germinated around the time humans invented writing. There are Douglas firs as tall as skyscrapers and a banyan tree in Calcutta as big as a football field. From the tallest to the smallest, trees inspire wonder in all of us, and in The Tree, Colin Tudge travels around the world - throughout the United States, the Costa Rican rain forest, Panama and Brazil, India, New Zealand, China, and most of Europe - bringing to life stories and facts about the trees around us.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Not the book described in the Audible summary
- By E. Miller on 04-28-17
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The Secret Teachings of Plants
- The Intelligence of the Heart in the Direct Perception of Nature
- By: Stephen Harrod Buhner
- Narrated by: Stephen Bel Davies
- Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 66
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 57
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 56
All ancient and indigenous peoples insisted their knowledge of plant medicines came from the plants themselves and not through trial-and-error experimentation. Less well known is that many Western peoples made this same assertion. There are, in fact, two modes of cognition available to all human beings - the brain-based linear and the heart-based holistic. The heart-centered mode of perception can be exceptionally accurate and detailed....
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3 out of 5 stars
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Nice info, but the reader, well...
- By Mr_OmiH on 06-17-18
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Never Home Alone
- From Microbes to Millipedes, Camel Crickets, and Honeybees, the Natural History of Where We Live
- By: Rob Dunn
- Narrated by: Sean Patrick Hopkins
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 43
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 40
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Story5 out of 5 stars 40
Even when the floors are sparkling clean and the house seems silent, our domestic domain is wild beyond imagination. In Never Home Alone, biologist Rob Dunn introduces us to the nearly 200,000 species living with us in our own homes, from the Egyptian meal moths in our cupboards and camel crickets in our basements to the lactobacillus lounging on our kitchen counters. You are not alone. Yet, as we obsess over sterilizing our homes and separating our spaces from nature, we are unwittingly cultivating an entirely new playground for evolution.
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5 out of 5 stars
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ecology microenvironment put in context
- By Klaus Earl Loft on 01-12-19
Publisher's Summary
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 80 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, our 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 minute 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. The Revolutionary Genius of Plants opens the doors to a new understanding of life on earth.
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- Elan Sun Star
- Hawaii
- 09-03-18
Brilliant facts and insights
I love this book
Stefano mancuso is so magically insightful
In this book
I only wish he had more audiobooks!!!!
Bravo signore’
3 of 3 people found this review helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- john beck
- 11-06-18
our inseparable connection with plants
great story, has a nice flow and progression. highly reccomend to be inspired about plants
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 10-15-18
Such an important subject. Every person should read this book
Plants are everything for humans. Such a relevant book in a time like today where we face our biggest challenge ever due to the climate and environmental change.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- curtis feipel
- 02-01-19
Very interesting
Interesting was not very novel. While I enjoy anything about plants, was not as scientific as I expected.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 01-28-19
amazing
great book .this book really puts everything in perspective.on how plants are, as individuals/beings .and how important they are to us and the world.and without them we will not be here
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Cormorant
- 01-26-19
Fascinating!
The author draws you into a magical world of plants that seems like science fiction, all the more enthralling because it's real.
Loved it! At the writing of this review I'm listening for the second time.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- SSue
- 01-12-19
Much that is not about plants
Learned omethings about plants that I didn’t know. But why did he need to include sections about democracy and about chili peppers? Would that he had stuck with more fascinating information about plants.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Tania
- 10-06-18
An excellent book for everyone!
I will never look at plants as just a part of a landscape again! Amazing!
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Tout en chantant
- 12-21-18
The revolutionary genius of Stefano Mancuso
I got the feeling this book was more about what a clever guy he is than a real love of plants in themselves. He seems to look at them to see if he can steal ideas to make man more powerful and so he exploit the planet with more success and ease, even moving into other planets if push comes to shove. He needs a new ‘story’ as Charles Eisenstein would put it.
As for the narrator, in most paragraphs he somehow manages to speak every word with a tone of amazement! Tiresome to listen to.