Professor Paco Calvo & author and illustrator Natalie Lawrence join us to discuss their book "Planta Sapiens: The New Science of Plant Intelligence" – an astonishing window into the inner world of plants and cutting-edge science in plant intelligence. Decades of research document plants’ impressive abilities: they communicate with one another, manipulate other species, and move in sophisticated ways. Lesser known, however, is the new evidence that plants may actually be sentient.

Get the book here: https://goo.gle/40c0hCE.

Paco Calvo is Professor of Philosophy of Science and PI of the Minimal Intelligence Laboratory at the University of Murcia, Spain. His research is on plant neurobiology, ecological psychology and embodied cognitive science. Paco Calvo studies the ecological basis of plant intelligence. His lab uses time-lapse photography to explore the navigational capacities of plants. His articles have appeared in Annals of Botany, Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, Frontiers in Neurorobotics, Frontiers in Robotics and AI, Journal of the Royal Society, Plant, Cell & Environment, Plant Signaling & Behavior and Trends in Plant Science, among other journals.

Natalie Lawrence is an author and illustrator who explores our relationship with the natural world, looking through multiple lenses - from the biological to the psychoanalytic. She has a first-class MCantab in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge, during which she spent most of her time in the Zoology department. She received a MSc and Ph.D. in History and Philosophy of Science from the University of Cambridge. She’s given a TEDX talk, been featured on BBC Women’s Hour and has work published in BBC Wildlife, New Scientist, Aeon Magazine and others. She currently lives in London and writes in a room filled with plants and specimens from her natural history collection, from megalodon teeth to hornbill skulls.

Moderated by Rachael Kline.

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