Whether their research is terrestrial or celestial, scientists are finding evidence to support theories that might have been scoffed at a decade ago. In “The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth,” author Zoë Schlanger notes that advanced technology has enabled botanists to come to “previously outlandish conclusions with real rigor.” Astrophysicist Lisa Kaltenegger makes a similar point in “Alien Earths: The New Science of Planet Hunting in the Cosmos,” which documents the search for extraterrestrial life.
She observes that the recent success of cutting-edge equipment in locating potentially habitable planets instantly transformed her research “from far-fetched to applied.” Whether focusing on a single pea shoot or on a rocky orb in a solar system hundreds of light-years away, these fascinating books feature discoveries that sound like the stuff of science fiction. Each author’s unabashed enthusiasm for her subject is engaging, and each makes her material accessible to general readers.
Schlanger is a journalist who began investigating plant life in her spare time as an antidote to the bleakness of her usual beats: pollution and climate change. She ended up quitting her day job to devote herself to writing “The Light Eaters,” her debut. (She is now a staff reporter at The Atlantic.
) Schlanger’s research sent her throughout the United States and to Germany, Chile, Scotland, and beyond, wher.