When we acknowledge fungi at all, it is in how they affect us (penicillin, truffles, psylocibin, yeast, etc.) or possibly how they help plants we like to eat by doing things like bringing nitrogen to their roots. Being humans, we are rather human-centric in our perspective of the world, and when we aren't being human-centric, we are animal-centric or, at the very least, plant-centric.
Mycologist Merlin Sheldrake, on the other hand, thinks about fungi all the dang time and after reading this wide-ranging exploration of the life form I don't think I'll ever see the world the same way again. I love to eat mushrooms and always think they are neat when they pop up out of the ground after a rain but, like most people, I don't spend much time thinking about fungi in general.
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. They can change our minds, heal our bodies, and even help us remediate environmental disaster. They are metabolic masters, earth makers, and key players in most of life’s processes. 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.įungi throw our concepts of individuality and even intelligence into question. 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. Fungi provide a key to understanding the planet on which we live, and the ways we think, feel, and behave.
Most fungi live out of sight, yet make up a massively diverse kingdom of organisms that supports and sustains nearly all living systems.
But mushrooms are only fruiting bodies, analogous to apples on a tree. When we think of fungi, we likely think of mushrooms. ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR- Time, BBC Science Focus, The Daily Mail, Geographical, The Times, The Telegraph, New Statesman, London Evening Standard, Science Friday “Grand and dizzying in how thoroughly it recalibrates our understanding of the natural world.”-Ed Yong, author of An Immense World
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