Cover of Nature's Magicians: How Leaves Conjure Up Our World by Jonathan W. Silvertown

Nature's Magicians: How Leaves Conjure Up Our World

By Jonathan W. Silvertown

$29.00
$29.00
Save 0
Sold out

Member Price: $26.10

Description

In this "engaging and revelatory book" (Wall Street Journal), an evolutionary biologist draws on a lifetime of research to offer a beguiling behind-the-scenes perspective on how plants really work--and how we truly depend on leaves for our survival. For readers of Entangled Life and An Immense World.

Leaves are so familiar that they are easy to overlook. Yet it is through leaves that plants perform their magic--not least building towers of wood from the unlikeliest of raw materials: carbon dioxide, a shower of rain, a heap of dung, and some sunlight. The air we breathe is cleaned by leaves. Everything we eat that comes from the land began as a leaf. More water is transpired through leaves than flows through all the streams and rivers on Earth.

Rendering complex concepts of plant biology into engaging and accessible prose, Jonathan Silvertown revels in the evolutionary success of these magicians of the natural world. If leaves are so vital to plant life, why did land plants have none at all for the first 50 million years of their evolution? Today, there are easily more leaves on Earth than stars in our galaxy. What changed? Silvertown explains how leaves grow, the ways they protect themselves against invaders, and the reasons they take such diverse shapes, sizes, and color.

By reframing the leaf as a solar panel, rainmaker, lunch box, chemistry set, shapeshifter, soil maker, geometric designer, and more, Nature's Magicians reveals just how essential leaves are to life on this planet--and reminds us that nature's smallest components often contain its greatest wonders.

ISBN-13

9781668098431

Publisher

Scribner Book Company

Page Count

256 pages

Product Dimensions

9.2 x 6.1 x 1.1 in
Officially Licensed
Ethically Made In Certified Factories

FIND THE STORES

  • Harvard COOP
  • MIT COOP

Harvard Square COOP

1400 Massachusetts 
Avenue,
Cambridge, MA 02138 

Tel: (617) 499-2000

Monday – Saturday
10am – 8pm 

Sunday 
10am – 6pm

MAP

Harvard COOP

9 Brattle Street,
Cambridge, MA 02138

Tel (617) 499-2000


Monday – Saturday

10am – 8pm

Sunday 
10am – 6pm

MAP

Harvard Business School COOP

Spangler Center,
117 Western Ave,

Boston, MA 02163


Tel (617) 499-3248


Monday – Friday 
10am – 5pm

Saturday - Sunday

Closed

MAP

Harvard Law School COOP

1595 Massachusetts
Avenue,
Cambridge, MA 02138


Tel (617) 499-3255


Monday – Friday 
9am – 5pm
Saturday 11am – 5pm

Sunday Closed

MAP

The COOP Concept Store

40 Western Ave, Boston, MA 02134

Monday - Saturday 10am - 6pm

Sunday 10am - 3pm

Ground floor of The Atlas Hotel, across from Harvard Business School

MAP

Harvard Medical School COOP

Countway Library,
10 Shattuck St,
Boston, MA 02115

Tel (617) 499-3300

Monday – Friday 
10am – 5pm
Saturday – Sunday
Closed

MAP

MIT COOP at Kendall Sq.

80 Broadway, Cambridge,
MA 02142

Tel  (617) 499-3200


Monday - Saturday 
9.30am - 6pm
Sunday: Closed

MAP

MIT COOP at Stratton

84 Massachusetts Avenue,
Cambridge, MA 02139


Tel: (617) 499-3240 


Monday - Friday
9am - 5pm

Saturday 10am - 4pm

Sunday Closed

MAP

Harvard Square COOP

1400 Massachusetts 
Avenue,
Cambridge, MA 02138 

Tel: (617) 499-2000

Monday – Saturday
10am – 8pm 

Sunday 
10am – 6pm

MAP

Harvard COOP

9 Brattle Street,
Cambridge, MA 02138

Tel (617) 499-2000


Monday – Saturday

10am – 8pm

Sunday 
10am – 6pm

MAP

Harvard Business School COOP

Spangler Center,
117 Western Ave,

Boston, MA 02163


Tel (617) 499-3248


Monday – Friday 
10am – 5pm

Saturday - Sunday

Closed

MAP

Harvard Law School COOP

1595 Massachusetts
Avenue,
Cambridge, MA 02138


Tel (617) 499-3255


Monday – Friday 
9am – 5pm
Saturday 11am – 5pm

Sunday Closed

MAP

The COOP Concept Store

40 Western Ave, Boston, MA 02134

Monday - Saturday 10am - 6pm

Sunday 10am - 3pm

Ground floor of The Atlas Hotel, across from Harvard Business School

MAP

Harvard Medical School COOP

Countway Library,
10 Shattuck St,
Boston, MA 02115

Tel (617) 499-3300

Monday – Friday 
10am – 5pm
Saturday – Sunday
Closed

MAP

MIT COOP at Kendall Sq.

80 Broadway, Cambridge,
MA 02142

Tel  (617) 499-3200


Monday - Saturday 
9.30am - 6pm
Sunday: Closed

MAP

MIT COOP at Stratton

84 Massachusetts Avenue,
Cambridge, MA 02139


Tel: (617) 499-3240 


Monday - Friday
9am - 5pm

Saturday 10am - 4pm

Sunday Closed

MAP

FOLLOW

  • @harvardcoop
  • @mitcoop