‘I’m the psychedelic confessor’: the man who turned a generation on to hallucinogens returns with a head

With the Omnivore’s Dilemma and How to Change Your Mind, Michael Pollan transformed our understanding of food and drugs. Can he do the same for our sense of self?Several years ago, Michael Pollan had a disturbing encounter. The relentlessly curious journalist and author was at a conference on plant behaviour in Vancouver. There, he’d learned that when plants are damaged, they produce an anaesthetising chemical, ethylene. Was this a form of self-soothing, like the release of endorphins after an injury in humans? He asked František Baluška, a cell biologist, if it meant that plants might feel pain. Baluška paused, before answering: “Yes, they should feel pain. If you don’t feel pain, you ignore danger and you don’t survive.”I imagine that Pollan gulped at that point. I certainly did when I read his account of the meeting in his latest book, A World Appears. Where does it leave our efforts at ethical consumption, if literally everybody hurts – including vegetables? Continue reading...


1 M.
Science
ID: -2922279222980149110


Similar News expand_more


Science
Crime
Science
Space
Entertainment
Entertainment
Science
Science
Entertainment
Entertainment
Crime
Entertainment
Science
Crime
Entertainment
Science
Entertainment
Science
Science
Crime
Entertainment
Crime
Entertainment
Science
Culture
Education
Science
Space
Culture
Crime
Entertainment
Entertainment
Crime
Science
Crime
Crime
Entertainment
Space
Entertainment
Entertainment
Entertainment
Entertainment
Entertainment
Entertainment
Science
Entertainment
Space
Crime
Crime
Add Watch Country

arrow_drop_down