Town Hall Seattle Science Series

Did you know that plants can hear sounds? And have a social life? Science writer Zoë Schlanger shares even more remarkable plant talents in her latest book, The Light Eaters, illustrating the tremendous biological creativity it takes to be a plant. To survive and thrive while rooted in a single spot, plants have adapted ingenious methods of survival. They communicate. They recognize their own kin. Schlanger immerses into the world of being a plant, into its drama and complexity. Scientists have learned that plants, rather than imitate human intelligence, have perhaps formed a parallel system. What is intelligent life, Schlanger argues, if not a vine that grows leaves to blend into the shrub on which it climbs, a flower that shapes its bloom to fit exactly the beak of its pollinator, a pea seedling that can hear water flowing, and make its way toward it? Our understanding and definition of a plant is rapidly changing. So then what do we owe these life forms once we come to comprehend their rich and varied abil