Ep 12: Sue Burke on Intelligent Plants in 'Semiosis'

The Science in The Fiction

In this episode we embark on a discussion of sci-fi botany, by way of Sue Burke’s novel 'Semiosis' and its sequel 'Interference'. We talk about a lot of interesting and surprising properties of plant behaviour that you may not be aware of, and how Sue worked these ideas into her main character Steveland and his interaction with human colonists on a planet named Pax. We talk about the symbiosis of domestication between people and plants - and between buffalo and grass, Charles Darwin and his seminal work on plant movement, plants murdering each other and insects, plant sensory capabilities, their mental health, and how we might treat them better. Along the way we learn things about tulips, apples, oranges and even giant ground sloths! We also discuss Sue's newer books 'Immunity Index' about a coronavirus pandemic - which she wrote *before* the Covid-19 pandemic - and 'Dual Memory', which has recently arrived on bookstore shelves. She is currently hard at work on the third installation of the Semiosis trilogy, 'Usurpation', due to be published in Oct 2024.
Sue Burke:
https://sueburke.site/
Publications | Sue Burke
https://sueburke.site/publications/
Semiosis: A Novel : Burke, Sue: Amazon.ca: Books:
https://www.amazon.ca/Semiosis-Novel-Sue-Burke/dp/076539135X

Buzzsprout (podcast host):
https://thescienceinthefiction.buzzsprout.com
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