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

The Light Eaters is a deep immersion into the drama of green life and the complexity of this wild and awe-inspiring world that challenges how humans understand agency, consciousness, and intelligence. In looking closely, observers see that plants, rather than imitate human intelligence, have perhaps formed a parallel system. Examining the latest epiphanies in botanical research, Zoë Schlanger spotlights the intellectual struggles among the researchers conceiving a wholly new view of their subject, offering a glimpse of a field in turmoil as plant scientists debate the tenets of ongoing discoveries and how they influence human understanding of what a plant is. This book challenges readers to rethink the role of plants–and their own place–in the natural world.