In The Light Eaters (2024), Zoë Schlanger reports from the frontiers of botany, where researchers are discovering forms of sensing, signalling and responding that challenge our ideas of plants as passive life forms. Meehan Crist and Peter Godfrey-Smith explore Schlanger’s account of new research into plant behaviour. They examine the case for plant agency – and the far more speculative claims for plant consciousness – and attempt to make sense of some astonishing discoveries.

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Further reading from the LRB:

Francis Gooding on mushroom brains:

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v43/n10/francis-gooding/from-its-myriad-tips

Andrew Sugden on the life of a leaf:

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v35/n03/andrew-sugden/hairy-spiny-or-naked

Ian Hacking on human thinking about plants:

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v13/n04/ian-hacking/living-things

Francis Gooding on the hidden life of trees:

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v39/n04/francis-gooding/thinking-about-how-they-think

Next episode: ‘Blue Machine’ by Helen Czerski

https://lrb.me/czerskicr