Entangled Life
by Merlin Sheldrake · first published 2020
71% recommend25% neutral4% critical
Why HN recommends it
Accessible pop-science tour of fungi, covering mycorrhizal links between mushrooms and trees and odd facts that stick. Suits curious amateurs, nature and forest lovers, and gardeners wanting a gentle introduction.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
"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. Fungi not only help create soil, they send out networks of tubes that enmesh roots and link plants together in the 'Wood Wide Web.' Fungi also drive many long-standing human fascinations: from yeasts that cause bread to rise and orchestrate the fermentation of sugar into alcohol; to psychedelic fungi; to the mold that produces penicillin and revolutionize
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Book recommendation: "Entangled Life" by Merlin Sheldrake [0]. The author discusses the possibility of intricately connected subterranean mycelium networks electrically signaling each other acting as a giant nervous system. He stops himself…
on “Language of fungi derived from their electrical spiking activity” ↗Try "Entangled Life" by Merlin Sheldrake for more on fungi
on “The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate (2018)” ↗I picked up this book about fungi from a recent HN comment: "Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures" by Merlin Sheldrake https://www.amazon.com/Entangled-Life-Worlds-Change-Futures/... I'm happy to pass along that recommendation.…
on “The Fungus in Your Cheese Is Having Weird Sex” ↗I recently finished Merlin Sheldrake's "Entangled Life" which I highly recomend to anyone interested in finding out more about these fascinating organisms. Really changed the way I see the world. My family are getting pretty bored of the fungus facts that…
on “Three reasons fungi are not plants” ↗I highly recommend the book: Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake. [1] He goes in to all studies even down to the point that mushrooms, fungi have their own kind of "internet" that communicate to trees, plants and even to having their own commence.…
on “Three reasons fungi are not plants” ↗I recently read Entangled Life: How Fungi Make our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape our Futures. It was a pretty good read and I learned a lot about fungi: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52668915-entangled-life
on “Buildings made with fungi could live, grow, and then biodegrade” ↗Merlin Sheldrake has written an excellent book on this subject, 'Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures'. https://www.amazon.com/Entangled-Life-Worlds-Change-Futures/... Here he cooks and eats some Pleurotus that he grew using a copy of…
on “How a carnivorous mushroom poisons its prey” ↗…significant part of the book, but it's really not the focus of the book). Design: The Elements of typographic style by Robert Bringhurst. (A beautiful book about typesetting beautiful books). Nature: Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake. (A fascinating book about fungii. I'll never see trees the same way again). Autobiography: A man for all markets by Edward O Thorp (Claude Shannon shows up and helps the author try…
on “Ask HN: What are some must read books?” ↗And Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake (also available on Audible) for a more pop science overview.
on “Historic fertilizer crunch threatens food security” ↗You might also like Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake. It's focused on fungi rather than trees, but has a similar outlook. Overall it's a bit more down to earth and factual (or at least it seems that way to me, having no special knowledge…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2022 and recommend for 2023” ↗If this interests you I suggest Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake. Fungi are fascinating. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50664430-entangled-life
on “Slime molds are gorgeous (you just never knew it) [video]” ↗…species they grow faster because there's a fight for sunlight. The year's growth will be bigger and wood would be less dense (but it is sold by volume). 1. The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben 2. Entangled Life, Merlin Sheldrake
on “Replanting Logged Forests with Diverse Seedlings Accelerates Restoration” ↗My favorite tapeworm-related fact is from Entangled Life [1]: If you cut off a tapeworm's head, it loses its main ganglia [~brain]; but when the head/ganglia grow back, the tapeworm will still have environmental memories (e.g. how to solve a maze it had mastered,…
on “Tapeworms found in brain of US man who ate undercooked bacon” ↗>Mushrooms are amazing Lichens are incredible. Check out the book Entangled Life, which Paul Stamets proclaims is "a must-read!"
on “In Cleveland, mushrooms digest entire houses” ↗Desert Solitaire - Edward Abbey A Brief History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson Entangled Life - Merlin Sheldrake The Hidden Life of Trees - Peter Wohlleben
on “I should have loved biology (2020)” ↗