User:Filmgirlfannn/Merlin Sheldrake

Merlin Sheldrake (born October 18, 1987) is an English biologist and author, best known for his work in mycology. His first book, Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, & Shape Our Futures, was published in 2020.

Education
Sheldrake grew up in London and studied natural sciences as an undergraduate at the University of Cambridge, and was taught by the botanist Oliver Rackham. He holds a PhD in tropical ecology from the University of Cambridge. In research for his doctorate, he did field work on underground fungal networks in tropical forests on Barro Colorado Island in the Panama Canal, where he became interested in mycoheterotrophs, plants that plug into the underground mycorrhizal network, or "wood wide web". Sequencing DNA of root samples, he made a "detailed map of the jungle's social network." In Panama, he was a research fellow of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.

Career
An expert in mycorrhizal fungi, Sheldrake's research is primarily in the fields of fungal biology and the history of Amazonian ethnobotany. He became interested in mycology as an undergraduate at Cambridge after reading the research of Suzanne Simard and E.I. Newman, which showed how fungi could form networks that link plants together underground.

Sheldrake's book Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, and Shape Our Futures was published by Random House on May 12, 2020. The book looks at fungi from a number of angles, including decomposition, fermentation, nutrient distribution, psilocybin production, the evolutionary role fungi plays in plants, and the ways in which humans relate to the fungal kingdom. It is also a personal account of Sheldrake's experiences with fungi. Jennifer Szalai of the New York Times called the book an "ebullient and ambitious exploration" of fungi, adding, "reading it left me not just moved but altered, eager to disseminate its message of what fungi can do." Eugenia Bone of the Wall Street Journal called it "a gorgeous book of literary nature writing in the tradition of [Robert] Macfarlane and John Fowles, ripe with insight and erudition." Rachel Cooke of The Observer called it "an astonishing book that could alter our perceptions of fungi forever." After completing Entangled Life, Sheldrake dampened a copy of the book, seeded it with spores, and ate the oyster mushrooms that grew from its pages. With another copy, he mashed up some of the pages to release their sugars, and fermented it into beer.

Sheldrake plays accordion in the Gentle Mystics, described as a "myco-klezmer-hip-hop-electro-burlesque" band. His brother, the musician Cosmo Sheldrake, is also a member, and they released their debut album in 2011.

Personal life
Sheldrake is the son of Rupert Sheldrake, a biologist, and Jill Purce, an author and therapist, and the brother of musician Cosmo Sheldrake.