Engaging stories are told about the personalities and abilities of truffle hunting dogs in Italy, and the powerfully pungent chemicals that lure truffle spore dispersers. He provides referenced narratives on how fungi communicate and “make decisions.” There is a richly detailed chapter on our broadening understanding of what dynamic systems lichens actually are, equating them to worlds in and of themselves. Sheldrake stitches his extensive personal experiences with all matters mycological into a broad tapestry of science and narrative, presenting both historical and modern day mycological theories.Ĭhapters discuss how fungi and plants first cooperated to move onto land, and speculate upon just what was that giant organism of the Devonian, Prototaxites (spoiler alert: Merlin is in the lichen camp). He retains a sense of wonder and a deep curiosity about the realities and the mysteries of fungi, all tempered by his rigorous scientific training. It is safe to say that young Merlin was steeped in both the natural world and the permeability of its boundaries from a very early age. He is a musician (there are a number of musical analogies within these pages), brewer (the lowly yeasts stimulated his first love for fungi) and son of Rupert Sheldrake, the famous parapsychologist who developed the hypothesis of morphic resonance. Sheldrake is a scientist who obtained his PhD in tropical ecology from the University of Cambridge. This well-written and well-researched book clearly demonstrates just how essential fungi are within the world that we live in, and mycophiles of all persuasions will find much to like within its pages. “Entangled Life,” first book by author Merlin Sheldrake, takes a deep dive into the science and fascination of fungus, and in the telling, makes it fun to read.
By examining fungi on their own terms, Sheldrake reveals how these extraordinary organisms – and our relationships with them – are changing our understanding of how life works.Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures They can change our minds, heal our bodies, and even help us remediate environmental disaster. Sheldrake’s mind-bending journey into this hidden world ranges from yeast to psychedelics, to the fungi that sprawl for miles underground and are the largest organisms on the planet, to those that link plants together in complex networks known as the ‘Wood Wide Web’, to those that infiltrate and manipulate insect bodies with devastating precision.įungi throw our concepts of individuality and even intelligence into question.
The more we learn about fungi, the less makes sense without them. Most fungi live out of sight, yet make up a massively diverse kingdom of organisms that support and sustain nearly all living systems.
But mushrooms are only fruiting bodies, analogous to apples on a tree. When we think of fungi, we probably think of mushrooms.
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