A plea from experts: stop personifying plants

Andrea Polle Photo: Andrea Polle Research team including Göttingen University reviews popular books on forests and criticises lack of scientific evidence Popular science books are all the rage. Their aim is to convey scientific topics to interested members of the general public as clearly and entertainingly as possible. To succeed, authors describe the science using accessible language and concepts that will be interesting to their audience. For example, human attributes have been assigned to plants. Trees are said to experience feelings and care for their offspring like mothers do for their children. An international research team led by the Universities of Heidelberg, Göttingen and Umeå (Sweden) has now tested such descriptions against scientific evidence. The 32 researchers from eleven countries analysed statements from two popular books on the subject of forests.