Myriad Fungi

缠结的生命

🏆 2021 Royal Society Science Book Prize
🏆 Selected for Global Science's "Most Beautiful Science Reading List of the Year 2024"
🏆 "Spotlight Good Books" Top Ten Humanities and Social Sciences Translated Works of 2024
🍄 See how fungi influence the world, connect to consciousness, and transform the future
◎ Editor's Recommendation
Reading "Entangled Life," I felt enveloped by a network full of wonders. If you have a way to perceive nature, you will find the natural world more beautiful than any fantastic imagination. This book provides such a way.
——Jaron Lanier, Father of Virtual Reality
If we believe that "intelligence" must arise from a heart, a brain, or at least a physiological mechanism, then how do we understand the survival "decisions" made by fungi, which lack a heart and brain, are neither animal nor plant, during their lives?
If our understanding of living organisms must be based on clearly defined "individuals" or "groups," then how do we understand the existence of fungi, which intertwine with all things and weave into all phenomena, such that once separated, she, he, or it is no longer themselves?
"What shall I do with this day and night, this journey of life and death? Every step, every breath rolls like an egg towards the edge of this question," wrote poet Robert Bringhurst. Fungi, like this "egg," lead us irresistibly towards the boundaries of many questions—evolution, ecosystems, individuality, intelligence, life... countless people's understanding of these concepts has been reshaped by fungi. Hopefully, this time, fungi can also shake your certainty.
◎ Content Introduction
For over a billion years, fungi have broken down rocks, created soil, degraded pollutants, and survived in space; they both nourish and kill organisms; they produce food, mass-produce medicines, manipulate animal behavior, cause hallucinations, affect weather, and create rain, snow, and hail—in an instant, billions of lives are transformed by them. Tiny yeast are fungi, and the honey fungus, weighing hundreds of tons and spanning 10 square kilometers, is also a fungus; without the assistance of fungi, plants might not have been able to leave water and colonize land 500 million years ago; today, over 90% of plants on Earth depend on mycorrhizal fungi—the ancient alliance between plants and fungi nurtured almost all known life on land. The more we understand fungi, the more we realize that the continuation of all things depends on them. And as of now, humans probably know less than one-tenth of all fungi.
In this journey into the damp, dark underground labyrinth, the author of this book, Merlin Sheldrake, travels to Italy to follow mysterious truffle hunters and their keen dogs, and "interviews" Physarum polycephalum, which can find the shortest path between two points, in a British laboratory; he ventures deep into the Panamanian rainforest, encountering ecologists, anthropologists, DIY mycophiles, and innovative makers trying to solve human problems with fungi, all seemingly connected by mycelia. He includes these various encounters with fungi in his book, inviting readers to look around their daily lives and catch them in the act—picking mushrooms, buying mushrooms, eating mushrooms; proofing dough, brewing wine, cultivating, creating—suddenly realizing that as long as we are alive, fungi have already caught us in the act.
◎ Media Reviews
Wonderful... A brilliant journey into these diverse and extraordinary life forms... Eye-opening... Humans should regard fungi as one of Earth's greatest wonders.
——Time Magazine, "100 Must-Read Books of 2020"
Almost every page of this book is filled with such fascinating observations or beautiful phrasing that it moved me to slow down and reread... "Entangled Life" made me realize that fungi are like the universe, deeper the more you delve.
——Science
Not just for fungus brains... showcases an incredibly inspiring side of science.
——The Times
◎ Celebrity Recommendations
Wonderful! Despairing about the future of life on Earth? Don't worry, fungi will always be with us. In whatever way.
——Margaret Atwood
Re-calibrates our understanding of the natural world, grand and dizzying.
——Ed Yong, author of "I Contain Multitudes"
The kind of book that truly changes how you see the world around you, "Entangled Life" is kaleidoscopic, revelatory, passionate, urgent, thrilling, and essential reading. Bold in its vision, incisive in its analysis, and infused with infectious enthusiasm.
——Helen Macdonald, author of "H is for Hawk"
Few books have moved me as much as "Entangled Life." The research, the passion, the writing, the insights... I'm not sure I've learned so much from a single book. Hats off to another scientist who celebrates imagination. This is a must-read masterpiece. Go and experience a whole new world.
——Andrea Wulf, author of "The Invention of Nature"
"Entangled Life" is a dazzling, vibrant, and perspective-shifting book. It makes you pause on every other line. After finishing it, I am amazed by the world of fungi and Sheldrake's profound and anti-hierarchical arguments. This is an extraordinary work by an extraordinary writer, successfully infusing life with wondrous beauty.
——Robert Macfarlane, author of "Underland"
Fungi are everywhere, and Merlin Sheldrake is the ideal guide to their mysteries. He is enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and a brilliant writer.
——Elizabeth Kolbert, author of "The Sixth Extinction"
I loved this book. Merlin is a scientist with a poet's imagination and a superb writer... This is a book that, through the power of its words, changes your understanding of humanity... It will inspire a generation to take up mycology.
——Michael Pollan, author of "The Omnivore's Dilemma"
◎ Awards and Honors
2021 Royal Society Science Book Prize
2021 Wainwright Prize (Global Conservation and Climate Change Award)
Books of the Year 2020 by Time, The Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Daily Mail, and other media

2024-11-01

北京联合出版公司

the new wave

304

9787559677754