Seeds, Sex, and Civilization: How the Hidden Life of Plants Has Shaped Our World

Seeds have influenced evolution, and for millennia they have influencedand sometimes determined where and how we live. This is an epic tale,given added enchantment by the fact that to most of us seeds mean littlemore than tiny objects in paper packets: who thinks first of rice, wheat,coffee, nuts, peas, beans, or olives? Here, Peter Thompson unfolds theabsorbing history of how, after centuries of investigation, we finallydiscovered what seeds do and how they work.

This is a scientific detective story with heroes and heroines followingclues and finding answers. Thompson brings to life the eccentrics, explorers,amateurs, and highly dedicated professionals who have accumulated ourknowledge. Some are well known, such as Charles Darwin and GregorMendel; others, like the Russian geneticist Nikolai Vavilov, are less so.The seeds also have a story and appear to have personalities, ambitions,and “stratagems” of their own.

The book concludes with a chapter by Stephen Harris on currentdebates about genetically modified crops, seed conservation, and plantownership in the contemporary world.