Science Focus Book Club: Further reading on plants, deep time and the world beneath our feet

Science Focus Book Club: Further reading on plants, deep time and the world beneath our feet

How do trees communicate in a forest? How has evolution shaped the Earth? Here's some more for you to read while taking part in September's Science Focus Book Club.


Mycorrhizal networks: what exactly is the wood-wide web? © Tidy Designs

Science Focus

Can the wood-wide web really help trees talk to each other?

5/15/2020
There’s evidence that trees communicate via a vast, underground network of fungal connections – we dive in to the murky world of mycorrhizal networks.
Show more
Gaia Vince: What part does culture play in our evolution? © Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images

Science Focus

Gaia Vince: What part does culture play in our evolution?

12/7/2019
Journalist and broadcaster Gaia Vince tells us how culture evolution played a big part in Homo sapiens dominance over the other hominins.
Show more
Meet the scientists going to extreme lengths to study climate change © Reuters

Science Focus

Meet the scientists going to extreme lengths to study climate change

8/19/2020
Scientists around the world are studying everything from glaciers to deserts to find out how climate change is affecting our planet.
Show more
The secret world of mammal evolution © Getty Images

Science Focus

Mammal evolution: How ancient fossils are revealing the secrets of our earliest ancestors

6/21/2020
Before Tyrannosaurus rex and Diplodocus roamed the planet, a group of small animals were eking out a successful existence and would one day come to dominate - here’s how a bounty of new fossils is telling us their story.
Show more
Humans grew plants in 'forest islands' of the Amazon 10,000 years ago © Umberto Lombardo / University of Bern

Science Focus

Humans grew plants in 'forest islands' of the Amazon 10,000 years ago

4/9/2020
Scientists believe south-western Amazonia to be the fifth area of the world where the earliest domestication of plants began.
Show more
Evolution is a most certainly a theory, but certainly not “just” a theory © Getty Images

Science Focus

Evolution is most certainly a theory, but certainly not “just” a theory

8/10/2020
Considerable confusion exists over some very fundamental aspects of evolution, compounded by the language we use to describe it.
Show more
BABYLON, HILLAH, IRAQ - NOVEMBER 20, 2016:  This is DigitalGlobe closeup satellite imagery of the remains and location of Babylon -- and ancient city in Mesopotamia.  Located in Hillah, Iraq. (Photo DigitalGlobe via Getty Images)

Science Focus

Earth’s ancient geography 'directed the course of human evolution'

11/20/2019
In his book, Origins, astrobiologist Lewis Dartnell shows us how the Earth’s ancient geography has influenced the development of human civilisations, and how it still affects our behaviour today.
Show more
Neil Shubin: How do big changes in evolution happen? © Getty Images

Science Focus

Neil Shubin: How do big changes in evolution happen?

6/4/2020
Evolutionary biologist Neil Shubin explains how life made the jump from land to water and how dinosaurs took to the air.
Show more
Life finds a way: when nature reclaims abandoned places © © Clement Bucco-Lechat/Wiki Commons

Science Focus

Life finds a way: when nature reclaims abandoned places

7/20/2020
What happens to a human environment when all the people leave? Nature takes it back.
Show more
Can planting billions of trees help tackle climate change? © Getty Images

Science Focus

Can planting billions of trees help tackle climate change?

9/13/2019
We speak to Bob Ward, the policy and communications director for the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.
Show more

This website is owned and published by Our Media Ltd. www.ourmedia.co.uk
© Our Media 2025