Book & podcast collection

The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth

byZoë Schlanger

Zoë Schlanger enters the emerging science of plant behavior to investigate how plants sense, communicate, remember, defend themselves, and respond to changing conditions. Researchers studying roots, leaves, electrical signals, chemical warnings, and cooperative relationships challenge familiar assumptions about intelligence and agency. Schlanger carefully distinguishes provocative findings from overstatement while showing how much remains unknown. The book invites readers to view plants as active participants in ecosystems rather than passive scenery, with implications for agriculture, climate resilience, conservation, and the ethical imagination humans bring to other forms of life.

Publisher

HarperCollins Publishers

Publication date

2024

Format

Print edition

Pages

290

ISBN

9780063073852