Alice in the Land of Plants
Alice in the Land of Plants
Why is it that plants do not need to move? How does a nonmotile organism have sex or defend itself? Why are some plants virtually immortal? What is the mechanism that allows plants to exploit a practically inexhaustible extraterrestrial energy source? How do plants regulate the composition of our planet's atmosphere? Why have there not been mass extinctions among plants as there have been among animals? How do plants communicate with one another? In the end, are plants intelligent organisms?
These are some of the questions the author discusses to demonstrate that plants are wrongly considered to be simple organisms lacking specific behaviour and intelligence. This book promises to be as pleasant a surprise as Alice's experience in the white rabbit's warren, in which she encountered a world very different from ours.
The author explains the biology of plants following Einstein's maxim that everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.
Introduction: Plants are no less complex than animals - they are just different
Basic plant organisation- how it differs from that of animalsWhy trees are almost immortal and other related issues
Short evolutionary history of plants
Sex in non-motile organisms
The world through the eyes of plants
The defence of a stationary organism
Symbiosis galore
Deviations from the basic biological type
A final word on plant intelligence
Epilogue: Tribute to Darwin.
Manetas, Yiannis
| ISBN | 978-3-642-28337-6 |
|---|---|
| Artikelnummer | 9783642283376 |
| Medientyp | Buch |
| Copyrightjahr | 2012 |
| Verlag | Springer, Berlin |
| Umfang | XVIII, 374 Seiten |
| Abbildungen | XVIII, 374 p. |
| Sprache | Englisch |
