From the foreword by Michael Pollan
"[Brilliant Green] is, like the best science, the product of a powerful imagination, one with the ability to see the world from a completely fresh and unencumbered point of view—and to communicate that perspective to the rest of us. So put aside for a couple of hours your accustomed anthropocentrism, and step into this other, richer and more wonderful world. You won’t regret it, and you won’t emerge from it ever quite the same again."
Wildlife Activist
"[Brilliant Green] is an interesting book about plant intelligence with amazing examples of how plants routinely interact with their surroundings."
New Scientist
Brilliant Green… [is a] timely, highly accessible summar[y] of fast-developing fields… Combine[s] a passion for plants and a desire to illustrate their largely unsung complexities with an appreciation of the burden of proof needed to persuade us of a world that contains chlorophyllic sentience.
EarthTalk
"...Mancuso, a leading scientist and founder of the field of plant neurobiology, presents a new paradigm in our understanding of the vegetal world."
Biologist
"Read this book: it informs and excites the mind. Exuberantly translated from Italian by Joan Benham, Brilliant Green can be read in a sitting...an excellent work."
MinnPost
"Slim and engaging."
Boston Globe
"Brilliant Green.. lays out the case for approaching plants as fellow intelligent life-forms... key insights to fields across the sciences, from botany to robotics."
Washington Post
"Mancuso may be provocative, but he’s not alone and he hasn’t been for a long time."
San Francisco Book Review
"Mancuso and Viola blaze a trail of intrigue, to study the seemingly inaccessible, to fathom the unfathomable, to celebrate the essence of life on Earth....This book is nothing short of summer reading that broadens the soul."
Gardening Australia
"Fascinating...Written in a lively, accessible way, Brilliant Green will appeal to anyone who loves plants...and isn't that all of us?"
Davie Mustangs See The World
"...an engaging and passionate examination of the inner workings of the plant kingdom"
The Guardian's GrrlScientist
"A brilliant fusion of historical and modern research, Brilliant Green is a quirky little book can be quickly read, yet it is captivating and eye-opening, and will make you stop and think. The authors’ fervor and wit jolt the reader out apathetic anthropocentrism and we awaken in the fascinating world of plant intelligence."
Guardian
"...a compelling and fascinating case not only for plant sentience and smarts, but also plant rights."
Maclean's
"Mancuso advocates for a second Copernican revolution, of sorts. Just as medieval people had to concede that the stars and planets don't orbit Earth, we must accept that the living world doesn't revolve around us."
Salon
"A short primer/manifesto on the history and science of the [plant intelligence movement]."
Nexus
"Referring to ground-breaking scientific studies and historical perspectives, the authors shake up our views of the plant world—one that we are totally dependent on for oxygen and food, and one that we cannot afford to take for granted."
New Scientist
"Brilliant Green… [is a] timely, highly accessible summar[y] of fast-developing fields… Combine[s] a passion for plants and a desire to illustrate their largely unsung complexities with an appreciation of the burden of proof needed to persuade us of a world that contains chlorophyllic sentience."
Washington Post
"Mancuso may be provocative, but he’s not alone and he hasn’t been for a long time."
NEXUS Magazine
"Referring to ground-breaking scientific studies and historical perspectives, the authors shake up our views of the plant world—one that we are totally dependent on for oxygen and food, and one that we cannot afford to take for granted."
The Biologist
"Read this book: it informs and excites the mind. Exuberantly translated from Italian by Joan Benham, Brilliant Green can be read in a sitting...an excellent work."
The Guardian
"...a compelling and fascinating case not only for plant sentience and smarts, but also plant rights."
The Washington Post
"Mancuso may be provocative, but he’s not alone and he hasn’t been for a long time."
Library Journal
02/15/2015
Presenting an unorthodox view of botany, Mancuso (plant, soil, and environmental science, Univ. of Florence) observes that 99.7 percent of life on earth is plant life, with animals, including humans, making up the remaining .3 percent. Humans cannot live without plants, but plants can live without us, and depend only on the sun. The author states that plants possess our five senses, as well as many others, such as sensing electromagnetic fields and humidity. Plants can respond to external stresses and indeed have intelligence, defined as problem-solving ability. While plants lack brains, eyes, ears, and noses, their roots, leaf parts, mechanosensitive channels (small sensory organs), and each cell have powers to perceive and respond to the environment. Various experiments are described, such as playing music of particular frequencies to grapevines that then ripened earlier and produced grapes richer in flavor and color than others. Plants also supposedly repel insects by sending out chemical substances to make leaves unappetizing and indigestible. The author believes that human intelligence is quantitative, not qualitative, and explains that a sizable literature even exists on bacterial intelligence. Many plant scientists disagree with the premises of the author's field of plant neurobiology. Several references online question these views, although Mancuso receives funding from Italian sources for his International Laboratory of Plant Neurobiology in Florence. VERDICT Readers with an academic background in botany on an undergraduate or graduate level may find this volume provocative. It may be misleading for other readers and contrary to the observations of many gardeners. Who can predict, however, whether these revolutionary scientific views will gain future acceptance?—Judith B. Barnett, Univ. of Rhode Island Lib., Kingston
