The Secrets of the Wood Wide Web | Hacker News Reader

The Secrets of the Wood Wide Web

newyorker.com

74 pointsdrainge11 comments

This was also the topic of last week's Radiolab

http://www.radiolab.org/story/from-tree-to-shining-tree/

I feel like this is happening a lot more recently. A great episode comes out on some podcast I'm listening to, then a slew of articles reiterating the same content comes out the following week. In a way, it feels like theft of someones hard work at researching a new topic.

I don't know if this was the case here but what happens a lot of the time is that there's a new book or paper or whatever. Press releases get sent out or stories are otherwise pitched and you end up with different writers or producers creating variants of the same story.

> In a way, it feels like theft of someones hard work at researching a new topic.

Not sure why you would want to cast a negative comment towards this article. Do you have any evidence?

On a suspicion, I checked, and yes, this is the son of "morphic resonance" biologist Rupert Sheldrake.

I'd love to be a fly (agaric) on the wall at one of those family reunions!

Yes you can. They hold workshops once a year on a small island north of vancouver. You just missed this years workshop: https://hollyhock.ca/programinfo/sheldrake/

Very cool. Coincidentally, I watched this fascinating talk by Suzanne Simard only yesterday, on how trees 'talk' to each other... http://www.ted.com/talks/suzanne_simard_how_trees_talk_to_ea...

Interesting to see the scientific pursuits of someone I only know through music! Gentle Mystics is worth checking out -- it's a wild blend of some sort of alternative electro swing with influences of gypsy jazz, hip hop, and chiptune.

That said I think I personally prefer the solo work of Merlin's brother and bandmate Cosmo Sheldrake. You can certainly see the influence of biological science on his work as well, which includes songs about tardigrades and pelicans and moss. I'd recommend giving the Pelicans We EP [1] a listen; it's got some really varied and interesting influences as well.

[1] https://soundcloud.com/cosmosheldrake/sets/pelicans-we-ep

There's also The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben. There was an article about it earlier this year. [1]

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/30/world/europe/german-forest...

That is cool.

I hope the authors of Samorost and Botanicula get to see this article, I'm sure they'll be interested.

> Merlin Sheldrake

Nominative determinism.

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