Plant Evolution

Are humans unwitting partners in evolution with psychedelic plants? Darwin’s Pharmacy shows they are by weaving the evolutionary theory of sexual selection and the study of rhetoric together with the science and literature of psychedelic drugs. Long suppressed as components of the human tool kit, psychedelic plants can be usefully modeled as “eloquence adjuncts” that intensify a crucial component of sexual selection in humans: discourse.

A cargo ship in distress . . . A mysterious stowaway in an SA pod . . . A crash-landing on a distant, unexplored world . . . An unexpected rescue by an equally unexpected friend . . . Captain Scott and his cohorts are lost in space, and time is running out. To make matters worse, the Free Fleet are not the only ones looking for them.

Scratch beneath the surface of a coffee bean, a red pepper flake, a poppy seed, a mold spore, a foxglove leaf, a magic-mushroom cap, a marijuana bud, or an apple seed, and we find a bevy of strange chemicals. We use these to greet our days (caffeine), titillate our tongues (capsaicin), recover from surgery (opioids), cure infections (penicillin), mend our hearts (digoxin), bend our minds (psilocybin), calm our nerves (CBD), and even kill our enemies (cyanide). But why do plants and fungi produce such chemicals? And how did we come to use and abuse some of them?

Don't miss the final part of this breathtaking trilogy from Teri Terry, multi-award-winning author of the Slated trilogy. Shay has followed Xander and joined his mysterious scientific cult at their remote Scottish compound. She's desperately searching for Callie, who went missing before the start of the epidemic that kills 95% of cases, and leaves a tiny number of survivors with astonishing new powers. Can Shay uncover the truth about the origins of the epidemic, find Callie, and perhaps even rekindle her relationship with Kai?

I’ve written a number of books on longevity and immortality. But I’ve only had some partial chapters on long-lived plants and animals. This is an important subject because all of this life is based on the same DNA code we have in our own bodies. If this life can live for hundreds or thousands of years, then this says that it is possible for humanity to live that long, also. Here I’ve researched and included lots of specimens of animal and plant life which represent the extremes of longevity for widely varying life.