Biology again! This book has a brilliant thesis: that you could argue that some plants have evolved to make us spread them round the world and make them successful. It is our desire for particular plants that makes us grow them and make sure that they survive. You could argue that they are "using us" in an evolutionary sense. An example is the potato. It was a weed in South America but has taken over the world. Did you know that tulip bulbs once fetched such large sums of money in Amsterdam in the 1600s that the financial markets that we use today had to be invented to fund it, and that there was a recession when the price was pushed too high and collapsed? One of the plants featured is illegal now because the desire has had big social consequences. This is the controversial bit of the book and by recommending the book, I am not saying that I agree with his views. There is excellent and fair coverage of Genetic Modification.
