ONLINE-EVENT: ENTANGLED LIFE - AN EVENING WITH MERLIN SHELDRAKE

ENTANGLED LIFE: AN EVENING WITH MERLIN SHELDRAKE

The Author of “Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures” in conversation with BIOTOPIA Founding Director Professor Michael John Gorman

Introduced by Dr. Auguste von Bayern

Admission is free.

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Biologist and writer Merlin Sheldrake will discuss his new book “Entangled Life”, published by Random House, in connection with the exhibition “Fungi for Future” at the new BIOTOPIA Lab.

Entangled Life, Sheldrake’s first book, shows that fungi provide a key to understanding the planet on which we live and, ultimately, life itself. It has recently been translated into German as “Verwobenes Leben”, published by Ullstein Verlag.

The more we learn about fungi, the less makes sense without them. Neither plant nor animal, they are found throughout the earth, the air and our bodies. They can be microscopic, yet also account for the largest organisms ever recorded. In fact, nearly all life relies in some way on fungi.

These extraordinary organisms have no brain but can solve problems and manipulate animal behaviour. In giving us bread, alcohol and life-saving medicines, fungi have shaped human history, and their psychedelic properties have recently been shown to alleviate a number of mental illnesses. Their ability to digest plastic, explosives, pesticides and crude oil is being harnessed in break-through technologies, and the discovery that they connect plants in underground networks, the 'Wood Wide Web', is transforming the way we understand ecosystems. Yet over ninety percent of their species remain undocumented.

As the BIOTOPIA Lab dedicates its first pop-up exhibition “Fungi for Future: The (In)visible Power of Fungi” to these fascinating organisms, we are looking forward to bringing together Merlin Sheldrake and BIOTOPIA Founding Director Professor Michael John Gorman for an exciting discussion.

Merlin Sheldrake is a biologist and a writer. He received a Ph.D. in Tropical Ecology from Cambridge University for his work on underground fungal networks in tropical forests in Panama, where he was a predoctoral research fellow of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. He is a musician and keen fermenter.