Wetlands! Wetlands! Wetlands!

A little girl growing up alone in the lush marshes of the North Carolina coast. A young woman who falls in love and experiences the anguish of a broken heart. A promise of marriage. A betrayal that leads to death. In Where the Crawdads Sing, Delia Owens reveals these moments along Kya Clark’s journey to survive after her family abandons her as a child. Owens’s prose is as lush as the environment she describes, making you feel you are with Kya every step of the way. As Kya deals with discrimination and torment by the local townspeople, she must also navigate matters of the heart and decide if opening her heart is worth the risk when all she’s known is loss.

After publishing Entangled Life in 2020, biologist Merlin Sheldrake made a meal out of two copies of the book. He dampened the pages of the first copy, inoculated it with fungal spores, and feasted on the mushrooms that burst from its pages. He then macerated the pages of the second copy and fermented them into a beer he drank.

Sheldrake’s process of transforming these copies of his book embodies the themes he explores throughout its chapters. He examines what we know and don’t yet know about fungi, these mysterious organisms that transform their surroundings—and us. He argues that fungi are an understudied group of organisms that expand our imaginations and offer promising solutions to modern-day problems such as mental illness and environmental destruction. In our guide, we’ll present Sheldrake’s insights into fungal biology and why fungi matter. Throughout our guide, we’ll supplement Sheldrake’s insights with recent research on fungi and offer steps you can take to contribute to our scientific understanding of fungi.

Are trees competitive or cooperative? In Finding the Mother Tree, ecologist Suzanne Simard delves into this question. Scientists and foresters have typically thought of trees as competing for water, sunlight, and nutrients, and they’ve favored growing marketable species while eliminating presumed competitors. However, ecologist Suzanne Simard explains in Finding the Mother Tree that trees in a forest are interconnected—they communicate and share resources through a complex underground network of fungi.

In this guide, we’ll show how Simard’s research has led to a shift in thinking about ecological relationships. We’ll explain how fungi work to connect the plant life in the forests, how “Mother Trees” take care of their communities and their offspring, and why the prevailing competition paradigm is shortsighted. Throughout, we’ll look at other research that supports or challenges Simard’s findings and discuss how this “new” paradigm of cooperation is not new at all—it’s been the prevailing model for understanding nature among indigenous peoples throughout history.

A foundational work in the field of biology, On the Origin of Species revolutionized the way we look at life on Earth. Published in 1859 by the naturalist Charles Darwin, this work explains and argues for the theory of evolution—that organisms weren’t created separately in their current forms, but that each species evolved gradually from other species over the course of millions of years.

Our guide explains the key mechanisms behind evolution and explores how it shapes the world. We’ll take a closer look at the objections raised against Darwin's theory by his colleagues and at Darwin's rebuttals. We’ll also explore why animals in Australia are all different from those in Asia, what happens when you try to breed two closely related species, and why human embryos have gill slits. Finally, we’ll extend Darwin's theories with updates from contemporary biology.

In The Hidden Life of Trees, forester Peter Wohlleben delves deep into the world of old-growth forests, unveiling secret interactions, intricate networks, and fascinating behaviors among trees. Wohlleben draws on scientific research and his experiences to shed light on the ways trees interact with their environment and one another. The Hidden Life of Trees invites us to look at forests with renewed wonder and appreciation, emphasizing the importance of conserving these vital ecosystems and seeing them not just as resources but as living entities deserving our respect and protection.

In this guide, we’ll explain Wohlleben’s arguments for why trees matter and explore some characteristics of trees and forest that make them so remarkable. We’ll then talk about how we can better support and protect the world’s ancient forests. Throughout the guide, we’ll discuss the scientific basis of Wohlleben’s work and compare his conclusions with those of other ecologists and environmental activists, including Suzanne Simard (Finding the Mother Tree) and Robin Wall Kimmerer (Braiding Sweetgrass).

Do you ever wonder why you feel so serene sitting at the beach, watching the waves? You’re likely experiencing Blue Mind. In Blue Mind, Wallace J. Nichols argues that water has a profound impact on our well-being and health because it induces a calming, meditative state, which he calls the Blue Mind state. He explains that we’re naturally attracted to water because of how it aided our survival in the past and that we still derive benefits from water today. Nichols is a research associate and co-director of multiple environmental organizations.

In our guide, we’ll explore why humans are so attracted to water and describe the ways it reduces stress and allows the mind to heal. We’ll also discuss why it appeals to our senses, such as sight and hearing, and look at different ways of being in or around water. We’ll conclude by exploring society’s relationship with water and how it might be improved. We’ll add scientific and social context for Nichols’s ideas and discuss alternatives to the tips he offers.

Though it’s become widely accepted that climate change is real, the questions still remain of what steps we should take to fix the damage and whether they'll be enough. Many scientists and activists believe that the climate has already passed a tipping point and that environmental catastrophe is inevitable. In Apocalypse Never, award-winning science writer Michael Shellenberger says that it’s time to assess the crisis from a rational perspective. He argues that we’re in a much better position to curb climate change than alarmists would have us believe, and that people who bend scientific truth in order to spur environmental action are doing more harm than good.

In this guide, we’ll explain Shellenberger’s argument that environmental alarmists overstate their claims and that there’s ground for hope for our planet’s future. We’ll also look at counter-arguments to Shellenberger’s claims and examine what independent research says about the solutions he suggests. We’ll point to recent developments in industry, agriculture, and the political climate that frame the conversation around climate change.

Merchants of doubt are people or organizations who discredit science that threatens their agenda or ideology. The first merchants of doubt were members of the tobacco industry—when scientists discovered that smoking caused cancer, that was bad for businesses. It was also bad for capitalism in general because it suggested that the market wasn’t self-regulating, and lack of regulation was killing people. Other defenders of the free market started using the tobacco industry’s techniques, such as funding new (and hopefully more favorable) studies or calling for balanced media coverage.

In Merchants of Doubt, science historians Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway study the doubt-mongering techniques used in several other important “debates”—nuclear disarmament, acid rain, the ozone layer, climate change, and the pesticide DDT. These techniques are still in use today.

Do you ever wonder why you feel so serene sitting at the beach, watching the waves? You’re likely experiencing Blue Mind. In Blue Mind, Wallace J. Nichols argues that water has a profound impact on our well-being and health because it induces a calming, meditative state, which he calls the Blue Mind state. He explains that we’re naturally attracted to water because of how it aided our survival in the past and that we still derive benefits from water today. Nichols is a research associate and co-director of multiple environmental organizations.

In our guide, we’ll explore why humans are so attracted to water and describe the ways it reduces stress and allows the mind to heal. We’ll also discuss why it appeals to our senses, such as sight and hearing, and look at different ways of being in or around water. We’ll conclude by exploring society’s relationship with water and how it might be improved. We’ll add scientific and social context for Nichols’s ideas and discuss alternatives to the tips he offers.